Owed to the LIRR (Not a Typo)

Homeward Bound?

Not on this railroad!

(Apologies to Simon & Garfunkle)

I’m sittin in the railway station

Got my monthly to my destination

But they canceled every train

The same old LIRR refrain

And ticket prices on the rise

All we get are tons of lies

Railroad blues

We’re singing railroad blues

Late, all the trains are late now

Great will we get home now how

Please someone come and fix this God awful railroad

Tonight we’ll hear the same old song

That something, somewhere has gone wrong

Frustration brews among us all

But no one cares; who can we call

Standing waiting dead on our feet

A train pulls in without one seat

Railroad blues

We’re singing railroad blues

Late, all the trains are late now

Great will we get home now how

Please someone come and fix this God awful railroad

Perhaps I’ll take my car to work

I’ll sit in traffic like a jerk

Pollution filling up the air

But Congress and big oil don’t care

To pay for gas I need two jobs

All due to those damn Railroad slobs!

 

Railroad blues

We’re singing railroad blues

Late, all the trains are late now

Great will we get home now how

Please someone come and fix this God awful railroad!

Enemies Mine

America has always had enemies and most likely always will.  Some say they hate us for our freedom and others for our arrogance but one thing most of our enemies have in common is their secret desire to visit and even live here.

Of course I am not speaking of mindless evil minded terrorists who care only about killing but rather those with defined differences in ideologies.  Some are jealous of our success and frustrated with their own government.

For example the leadership of Iran is an enemy who funds terrorists and insurgents around the world in an effort to harm America and our allies.  If you were to analyze their motives you might come away shaking your head at the stupidity of it all.  But the citizens of that repressed society actually admire America!

In Pakistan the leaders have banned Valentine’s Day saying it promotes vulgarity among the masses.  Yet they don’t seem to have any problem with suicide bombings.

Creating tension for the sake of creating tension is a form of insanity.  Fox news and their puppets on the right have long been proponents of doing just that.

President Barack Obama

And when a nation or group hates America they generally point to our leader or leaders as the focal point of their anger.

In that respect President Obama is no different from his predecessors and he definitely has his share of haters around the world.  But he holds the dubious distinction of having more enemies to deal with than any American President before him.  And that’s because so many of these haters ARE Americans.

I am not just talking about a simple political partisanship hate used to stoke a voter turnout fire but rather a deep seated intense possibly racially motivated and totally irrational violent hate that is so unfounded and unreasonable as to border on insanity.  And that border is as thin as it is porous.

Take the Republican Party in Congress and the first words out of the mouth of Senator Mitch McConnell after Mr. Obama became President Obama.  “Our number one job is to make Obama a one term President.”  The stance morphed a bit in 2012 to, “Our number one job is to get Obama out of office.”

Self Admitted Obstructionist
Undeserving of the title of
Senator Mitch McConnell

One certainly could have hoped that the Republican Party would have made fixing the economy and helping Americans their top priority but then one would have been terribly wrong!

And every step of the way since making that nearly terrorist-like statement aimed at dismissing what the majority of voters indicated they wanted McConnell’s party has acted irrationally.  They voted against their own bills when and if the President came on board.  They back tracked on every piece of legislation they had originally proposed once the President agreed with them.

In a sort of comic ‘Bizarro World’ fashion Mr. Obama would have had to say he was against something in order to get it enacted!  And when he moved closer to their stance in negotiations they slithered further away to the right until they couldn't get much farther lest they fall off the face of the Earth.  And still they would not compromise.  In fact many in their camp consider compromise to be a curse word avoided at all costs.

And with the silent filibuster many of these cowardly lions of the Republican Party hid behind a loophole in the Senate regulations to stop his every attempt at moving America forward.  Mr. Obama has had the least amount of appointees approved by Congress since time began and had to suffer through a record number of filibusters aimed at creating a stagnation nation.

The Party of NO has even had the nerve to stop him from appointing his own cabinet members!  What’s next, telling him who he may have dinner with?

Never Elected to anything
Grover Norquist

Right wing lunatic Grover Norquist, who has never been elected by any human to any office, has had a hold on the Republican Party for years.  He actually stated that his party of choice should allow the President a tiny increase on our ‘debt ceiling’ every 3 months and let him continue raising it ONLY IF HE BEHAVES!  Who the hell is this little weasel to demand the duly elected leader of the country behave?

Useless despicable turd

And speaking of hate mongering weasels, how about a many times failed billionaire with horrendous hair constantly seeking publicity who demands to see proof that Mr. Obama is who he says he is?

But he and his ilk are not alone and the message they promote is repeated across the under educated world of Fox News network viewers and readers.

Many Americans who tend to live in this ‘bubble’ are unaware of the terrible tactics these so called leaders of their party were and are pulling.  They became disillusioned with the President and turned against him.  And as any self-fulfilling prophesy will do this fueled the feverish fires of the Republican Party further.  They saw their evil tactics being rewarded so they doubled down their efforts to ruin the economy and keep Americans unemployed or underemployed at best.

But the President was reelected.  And for the second time he garnered a majority of the popular vote. And Congress remains mired in a record low approval rating.  So one would guess they would change their tactics.  And once again one would be wrong.

Some of the Republican Party have taken to calling for less stupidity in their ranks realizing the public perception is finally taking a turn toward reality.  It may be too little too late.

Growing up I was told that when you hate someone it only hurts you. That may be true but when the ‘you’ that’s doing the hating happens to be an entire political party there is bound to be a great deal of collateral damage!

Enemies don't have to remain
thus - Truly evolved people
can learn to become friends

Our two political parties will always have ideological differences and neither side will ever be 100% right.  That’s why we need at least parties with clearly defined messages and beliefs.  But we also need and deserve representatives who know the meaning of the words compromise and especially governance!

And all sides must understand that elections have meanings and consequences!

It’s time for the hating of this American born non-Muslim President to end and for constructive governing to begin!

Love / Hate Story!

Erich Segal penned a smarmy somewhat absurd and awful tale known as “Love Story.”  The song that went along with the tear-jerker had the words, “Where do I begin?”

Love means never having to say
I'M SORRY AMERICA
for right wing stupidity

Those words are true whenever I see some of the crap posted on the internet or sent via viral emails to anyone with a computer by those who do not read or choose to learn the truth!

They perpetuate lies spawned out of the evil minds of the right wing hell bent on enslaving, or rather continuing to enslave the majority of the population of America, aka the 99%.

And for some reason many OF the 99% believe this crap!

So to the best of my ability here are the simple rebuttals to the email I received from someone I consider a friend although a delusional one at best.  I have cut and pasted the original clap trap as it appeared on the original offensive brainless email and rebutted or attempted to explain where the preceding lies were wrong directly afterwards.

If anyone has anything to add please feel free to comment or send me a private message or email me with your thoughts.

To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature
it is now official that the majority of you are corrupt morons:

THIS IS TRUE: Since the majority in the House of Representatives is of the Republican persuasion the statement is at least partially accurate, although misleading!

(Now for the items listed in the offensive email.)

A. The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.

          The Postal Service would be just fine if not for the absurd rule placed on it by the majority of the House of Representatives, currently a wholly owned subsidiary of the evil Repub Party, that it spend more money than it takes in to fund its pension!  If that rule was lifted the USPS could once again become the envy of the world when it comes to mail delivery but alas the Repubs are JACKASSES and feel the postal workers are mainly Democratic voters and therefore must be punished or removed from the ranks of voters!

B. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.

Uh, NO! Social Security is a closed end fund of sorts that is fully capable of taking care of itself. And if left to its own device would be able to exist nearly forever.  But Repubs have borrowed a fortune from it and never paid it back.  They also never like to have that mentioned so you can count on the money NEVER going back to the administration. And finally the Repubs consider it an entitlement for people not in the 1% and therefore not in the group that can bribe them with tons of perks so it must be stopped!

C. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.

          Fannie Mae is not perfect but if the banks had not pulled their bull shit scams and then gotten bailed out WITH OUR MONEY, which was never paid back then Fannie Mae might have been able to continue doing a great job.
Sadly that job helped poor and middle class Americans and not the billionaires who want it stopped so again, it must be vilified!
And speaking of the fraud perpetrated by the banks, how many of the CEOs of those companies lost their jobs let alone went to jail?  So don’t talk to me about President Obama.  Every time he tried to change the way the Right Wing did their evil crap on the people of America he got filibustered!


D. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more.

LOVE STORY ALERT!
Where do I begin???
What an incredible bullshit lie!!!  First of all confiscated is a stupid word when it comes to taxes in a democratic country where all of us SHOULD be paying our fair share of taxes.
I’m thinking of you Exxon Mobil; GE AND SINCE I AM UPDATING THIS - DONALD J FUCKING TRUMP!!
And if we cannot help the poorest among us then what the hell good is our country?
As for worrying about any war or fight or even a slight skirmish on poverty how about asking those at the top of the ever increasing gap between the 1% and working humans?

And since most of the so-called right wing are also members of the again so-called religious right I ask a simple question when it comes to taking care of the less fortunate – What would Jesus do?  I DEMAND AN ANSWER FROM THOSE HYPOCRITICAL BASTARDS!



E. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965.
You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.

Every civilized country in the world can take care of their citizenry with affordable healthcare but when America tries to do the same we get shot down, and I don’t just mean that figuratively! And anyone who suggests we do try to take care of our citizens gets called a lousy socialist, as if that were a bad thing!
If obstacles were not thrown in front of every attempt to make healthcare better and more affordable FOR ALL AMERICANS then Medicare and Medicaid would not even be needed!

F. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.

Attempting to help those less fortunate get a great education should be one of the most important things a sane and modern forward thinking country should do but we are run by Repubs and Conservative mentalities that wish to take us back to the 1800s when women were 2^nd tier citizens consigned to the kitchen or nursery and Black people were servants at best.  Or better yet let’s go back to pre Civil War America and get Mammy to work in our kitchens!

Education is the keystone to a modern economy and is feared only by the lowest scum of the earth such as the Taliban who shoot little girls in the head if they wish to go to school!
Are the Republicans any better?  They pull the same crap but do it behind closed doors and in silent filibusters when they block or vote down such no-brainer bills as the Violence Against Women Act!


G. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.

And just who do you think blocks every effort to get out from under the thumb of the terrorists from the Arab world? Let’s see, the Saudi prince whose country funded Osama Bin Laden walked hand in hand with good old Republican President Bush in the Rose Garden of the White House before they smooched!
If Republicans would finally just say no to the bribes of the scum-sucking Arab oil producing bastards perhaps we could get alternative energy going in America!  But they would rather vilify efforts to get clean and free energy from the sun using one failed company as a rallying cry.
And don’t start me on Big oil companies who pay the rest of the bribes to the hypocrites of the Republican Party!

Exxon Mobil made $44.9 BILLION in PROFIT last year (2012) and paid how much in tax to the good ole imbecilic United States of America? ZERO!!! Not one freaking penny!
AND WE GIVE THEM SUBSIDIES!!!

You have FAILED in every "government service" you have shoved down our throats while overspending our tax dollars.

Whose tax dollars? The wealthy don’t pay taxes anymore! I paid more in taxes than the loser in the last Presidential election, one Mitt Romney of the 1% Republican Party!

AND YOU WANT AMERICANS TO BELIEVE YOU CAN BE TRUSTED
WITH A GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM??

YES! OMG YES! YES WE DO!



Folks, keep this circulating. It is very well stated.

Not really – It’s mostly bull shit propaganda that cannot stand the light of dusk let alone day!

Maybe it will end up in the e-mails of some of our "duly elected' (they never read anything) and their staff will clue them in on how Americans feel.

Feel this, morons!!

AND

I know what's wrong. We have lost our minds to "Political Correctness!"

Political Correctness does go too far on occasion but it’s better than many alternatives.

Someone please tell me what the HELL's wrong with all the people that run this country!!!!!!

          Well, for one thing too many were elected by idiots like you!

We're "broke" & can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless etc.?

          SERIOUSLY??? YOUR PARTY IS AGAINST HELPING THEM! THEY CALL THAT ENTITLEMENT TO THE TAKERS! READ A PAPER FOR CRYING OUT LOUD ASSHOLE!

In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile, and Turkey ..And now Pakistan, previous home of Bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS to say nothing about the handouts to ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS!!!

I long for the day when your ilk will say nothing of them!

As for Aid to other countries, this is what America has done for ages and it’s what sets us apart from most of the rest of the world but if you want us to cut back fine.  Just don’t cut it out completely as we wouldn't want those places to start hating us even more!

And as for illegal immigrants – ah, forget it, you aren't smart enough to get it anyway.

Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks?

          Hello! Your party calls that ENTITLEMENTS and wants it stopped.

AMERICA: a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed hungry, elderly going without 'needed' meds, and mentally ill without treatment -etc,etc.


          HELLO AGAIN! READ THE ABOVE!

Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries. Sad isn't it?

          They would love to but Republican Governors across the country spout crap about refusing any Federal money!  That is they are doing it while a black Muslim man from Kenya is the President!

What happened to the old rule, "Charity begins at home"? Another value we have discarded thanks to our elected officials... both parties!


          Again – I just don’t know where to begin!

99% of people won't have the guts to forward this.
I'm one of the 1% -- I Just Did

"United Saves America"

          Not only am I forwarding it, I am insisting that all intelligent people read it and understand the kind of moronic idiots we have to contend with if we are ever to once again move this country into the future as the greatest leader of the world!

Dysfunction Junction

If one were to interpret the beliefs of what Republican and Conservative members of Congress think on two important issues in the news these days it might be that killing humans may only start after they have left the womb!

That provocative statement comes as a simple extrapolation of the arguments made by those groups and a juxtaposition of their talking points.

They claim that we must stop all abortions no matter what the circumstance but at the same time we must not infringe upon the rights of gun owners and in many cases mentally unstable individuals from obtaining weapons of mass murder.

In one case a woman has no choice but to bring a pregnancy to term even if she was brutally raped or was the victim of unconscionable incest.  She must even bring the future child into the world if it is medically evident the child will be severely deformed and may not live past a few agonizing and painful months.
And many of the less rational advocates of the far right support the murder of abortion providers in order to stop them!

That life begins at conception is the key to the ‘personhood’ movement, an attempted end run by the ‘right’ around the current law of the land known as Roe V Wade.

Attempts to change or at least parse the legal definition of birth back 9 months does not change the fact but rather points out the absurdity and contradictions of the right wing’s stance.

But on the other hand the uproar and outcry that came from the same groups over proposed gun control legislation aimed at making all Americans, including those brought to term after abortions, safer was deafening.

And what prompted this sudden defensive offensive move?

Obviously it was the massacre at the Newtown Elementary school.

It was merely the latest tragedy in our country involving such wanton destruction of life.

In fact so many of these types of massacres are occurring they soon may not even make the front page.

Words cannot fully express our
feelings for these beautiful children

But in Newtown so many beautiful innocent 6 six year olds and their caring brave teachers were viciously attacked and murdered for no apparent reason by the mentally deranged son of a strange now dead legal gun owning woman.

Leading the charge to continue allowing anyone interested in obtaining assault weapons the opportunity to kill more children and other Americans was the current ‘from my cold dead hands’ leader of the NRA Wayne LaPierre.

This major contributor to the coffers and pockets of our Congressmen hid behind the 2^nd Amendment of the U S Constitution, an amendment clearly in need of an update.

LaPierre seemed to argue that it would be a slippery slope to take away Americans’ God given rights to own guns of any kind.

I can't wait for his
cold dead hands
to relinquish control
of Congress!

The fact that Mr. LaPierre represents and is paid quite handsomely by gun and assault weapons manufacturers and not the average citizen who have no interest in carrying such things should make suspect any testimony he gives on the subject.

And speaking of his testimony, why does he get a seat in front of Congress?

I realize in America we wish to hear all sides of an issue in order to make a more rational decision but listening to his incredibly partisan paid for opinion is like asking a fox whether there should be more hens placed in house.

When you realize that the stance on the above issues comes from the same people it should make your head spin.

I do not think that the Republican Party wishes more fetuses to come to term so that they may be used as target practice but this sort of inconsistency undermines many of their arguments.

And when we add the fact that the Republican led House of Representatives voted over 40 times to overturn President Obama’s Affordable Care Act aimed at making healthcare more attainable for every American you clearly see their belief that life may begin at conception but no longer matters after birth!  That is unless you are born with a so-called silver spoon in your mouth and are a scion of the 1%.

If life is sacred, all life then why do they stop caring about it at birth?

The Republican Party has become as dysfunctional as their own words and the ideals they appear to espouse and it’s past time to let them know we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it, or elect them anymore!