DARK DAYS IN MARYLAND
The announcement on Tuesday that the board of regents had decided to retain head football coach D.J. Durkin, despite the fact that the University President had called for him to be terminated following the death of a player last summer from heat stroke. Subsequent investigations into the tragedy led to the dismissal of the strength/conditioning coach and the suspension of Durkin until this unexpected announcement. The athletic director also escaped culpability in regard to this terrible tragedy. In looking at the Board of Regents apparently responsible for this unfortunate and destructive decision to reinstate Durkin, although there are a number of women and minorities represented, the majority of them are aging middle class white males. The composition of this body looks like Trumps “CABINET OF CLOWNS”, and has just made a decision that will hinder the University in so many ways in the years to come, from talented athletes looking elsewhere to play ball to the very credibility of the institution. Make no mistake about this story. A student athlete, whose parents had entrusted to the care of head Maryland football coach D.J. Durkin, died of heat stroke on the practice field under his watch. Died ladies and gentlemen, because he wasn’t given the proper care or attention, or maybe he just wasn’t man enough to suit the coaching staff. There had been previous accusations against Durkin regarding abusive behavior and the general toxic tone that existed within his program, a losing one at that under his regime. Apparently those incidents were brushed aside and the reign of terror allowed to continue. But hey, like Al Davis said famously “just win, baby!!”, and Maryland had actually achieved a winning record this season, without Durkin on the sidelines, I might add. The man at the top has the ultimate responsibility for what happens on his watch, and a young student athlete died under Durkin’s. That alone, forget about the other previous whispers and rumors of abusive behavior, should have been grounds for his dismissal WITH CAUSE. Forget about the money!! What’s the price of a young man’s life?!? It’s being reported that several players walked out of the team meeting Durkin held upon his reinstatement. I hope the rest of the team will stand up for their fallen comrade and do the same, forcing Maryland to reverse this terrible decision. The message it sends, just like bringing back Urban Myer at Ohio State following the ongoing investigation into a staff members domestic violence history, is NOT what intercollegiate athletics is all about…..”JUST WIN, BABY!!!! Until next time…..
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FAUX NEWS-the REAL “ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!!”
Donald Trump has repeatedly called the mainstream media the “enemy of the people” as he attempts to fire up his base. He stands and smiles as crowds at his racist rallies chant “CNN SUCKS!!” over and over (in between chants of “lock her up!!”), continues to call CNN the “enemy of the people” even AFTER actual pipe bombs were sent to their NY headquarters, he essentially does nothing when a Washington Post journalist is brutally murdered in the Saudi consulate in Turkey on orders from the Saudi leadership and has otherwise, through his tweets to his bombastic rhetoric whipped up a frenzy of hate and distrust the likes of which this country hasn’t seen in fifty years! And through it all, FAUX NEWS (otherwise known as FOX, which I refuse to call it anymore) has been standing shoulder to shoulder with POTUS, from the three stooges in the morning to “INSANITY” Hannity in the evening. They, under the obvious direction of billionaire Rupert Murdoch and in close concert with the White House, have steadfastly broadcast misleading and propagandist material as legitimate news, knowing full well it is nothing more than part of a political strategy which rewards the uber wealthy at our expense, incites the less educated white voters through obvious scare tactics such as the so called “caravan of evil” headed in our direction which requires more American troops than either Iraq or Syria and further divides our country more every day. Trump wants to talk about the so called “fake news”; this network, my friends, is the absolute epitome of REAL FAKE NEWS!! And sadly, the so called “base’ laps it all up like water from a dog bowl, hanging on ridiculous word after word coming forth from racists like Laura Ingraham, bigoted blowhards like Lou Dobbs and the absolute worst clown of all (and close friend of CROOKED DONALD) Sean “INSANITY” Hannity. Just yesterday they were spewing forth the absurd rumor that the so called “caravan” of migrants, comprised mostly of women and children seeking a better life, was carrying the smallpox virus with them, a disease officially declared eradicated by the World Health Organization over forty years ago!! Oh, and leprosy too, a sly Biblical reference to get all those Evangelicals fired up too!!!! FAUX NEWS has been beating this subject to death every single day and night as part of the fear and hate campaign being waged by Donald Trump and his REPUBLIKAN cohorts running up to the mid term elections. They are so paranoid about losing control of the House and/or Senate or both, that they have decided to say and do anything possible to mislead the American voter into keeping their grip on power. Like saying they are in favor of guaranteeing coverage for preexisting medical conditions when in fact they have sued to eliminate the Obamacare mandate in eighteen different states and have consistently cast votes in Congress to do likewise, so far without success. Just flat out lies from at least half a dozen current REPUBLIKAN candidates. It doesn’t matter if you prefer the mainstream media, i.e. NBC, CBS, ABC or CNN or CNBC or alternative sources for news such as PBS, VICE News or the BBC, internet providers such as MSN or YAHOO or publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post or Wall Street Journal. In every case, you can trust that you are getting mostly straightforward information from in many cases award winning journalists with a slight political bias depending on which you choose. The same CANNOT be said of FAUX NEWS. With possibly ONE lone exception, Shepard Smith, there isn’t a single legitimate journalist on the entire staff of buffoons they parade out in front of the cameras every single day. In many cases these dupes are nothing more than backdrops for Trump and his sycophants, like the other day when Homeland Security Secretary (that’s a joke!!) Kirstjen Nielson had the photo op in front of a “Trumped” up border wall section in Texas. Pure racist propaganda. They glorify the inflammatory words and actions of Donald Trump to the point where radicalized individuals on the right feel justified in sending pipe bombs to political opponents or slaughtering innocent men and women in the name of race or religious beliefs!! And, of course, Donald Trump claims absolutely NO responsibility for the current political environment of vitriol and hatred, just like he will claim no responsibility next week when his party gets swept out of control of our Congress as a result of his divisive policies and words. And all the while there is FAUX NEWS, on his television screen, on the unsecured cell phone chatting or cozying up to him at Mar-a- Lago. Just remember this next time you are tempted to tune in to this network for your news-it is UNFAIR and UNBALANCED way beyond any acceptable journalistic standards and is the REAL purveyor of the so called “FAKE NEWS” That’s why it is and always will be FAUX NEWS-the REAL “ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!!” Until next time….. BRAVO BEANTOWN BASHERS!!!
I made a promise a few weeks back when I retooled this blog in an attempt to tone down the political rhetoric and move away from the inflammatory issues such as immigration and gun regulation in favor of talking about sports, like Howard Cosell used to. My son told me at that time “you’ll be back…” Well, it turns out, he was right. After last weeks terrorist bomb threats to top Democratic leaders and former Presidents, the racially motivated murder of two innocent blacks in Louisville because of the color of their skin, the massacre of Jewish worshippers by a right wing zealot toting an AR-15 assault rifle in Pittsburgh, the ridiculous lies about the so called “caravan” invading our southern border and Trump sending in 5000 military troops in a purely political prop a week before the mid term elections, I couldn’t NOT write about these things. And so I have over the last number of days been posting about these issues instead of sports. As the most important mid term election of my lifetime is only one week off, I feel I would be remiss if I did not continue to try to sway voters opinion against the ongoing insanity of the Trump Presidency. And so I shall. But now, today, briefly back to sporting news. All hail the World Series champion Boston Red Sox, clearly the best team in baseball this year. Not only did they have the best record during the regular season with 108 victories, they swept through the play offs like a tsunami!! Against the wild card NY Yankees, the defending WS champion Houston Astros and last year’s WS contending L.A. Dodgers they were a combined eleven up and three down, a winning percentage of nearly .800!! Alex Cora did a masterful job of shepherding his talent and making the right moves and with GM Dave Dombrowski doing likewise providing the personnel they have created as close to what could be called a baseball dynasty over the last few decades, with four rings now in the last fourteen years. This followed nearly 100 years of Fenway futility, so the good folks of Bean town are well deserving of a championship caliber team which appears ready to dominate baseball for the next few years!! Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox!!! What about those Kentucky football Wildcats?!? After having looked completely anemic offensively for most of the game, a special teams punt return TD and a game winning drive as time expired against Mizzou sets up probably the biggest UK football game in fifty years this Saturday in Lexington. As improbable as it seems, they will be playing UGA for the SEC championship!!! As powerful as Georgia appears to be this year, I believe Kentucky’s D gives them a legitimate shot at winning this game. Maybe then Paul Finebaum and his little pals at ESPN will stop giggling every time they mention UK. Stay tuned!!! Lastly, sadly, apparently I gave U of L too much credit predicting they would beat Wake Forest, a game they lost 56-35. They have allowed over fifty points now how many times this year already?!? Petrino already has one foot out the door, folks, as well he should. Time for a change to more than just the name of the stadium!!! Good thing basketball season is almost upon us, at least for all the suffering Cards fans!!! Until next time….. TIME TO BAN ASSAULT RIFLE SALES Another mass shooting, this time at a Jewish Synagogue in Pittsburgh which left eleven innocent victims dead and another six wounded. The perpetrator, a right wing nut job incited by right wing political propaganda, used an AR-15 assault rifle to mow down innocent human beings in the most horrific manner imaginable. He did so by utilizing a military weapon, an assault rifle, which is as readily available today as a Daisy BB gun. Just let that sink in for a moment. Sure, after the last massacre, several large stores stopped selling these weapons of mass destruction, but as usual, the people who are responsible for the current insanity, our Congress, did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! These people are just as responsible as the NRA for the current mayhem we are witnessing by individuals brandishing this type weapon. The weapon was developed for the military to inflict maximum damage on the enemy, and it performs this function very well, unfortunately for the innocent civilian victims. The AR-15 is a civilian version of the military grade M16 and M4 family of rifles that are designed to deliver small sized bullets at high velocity in order to inflict catastrophic and lethal wounds. Whether these weapons actually serve a purpose on today's civilian market is a valid question. What is certain is that they have been used in a string of mass shootings including the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas last November, Las Vegas last October and the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016. Louis Klarevas of the University of Massachusetts at Boston says that "you would see drastic reductions in what I call gun massacres” if the 1994 federal assault weapons ban was reinstated. In his book "Rampage Nation", he defines a gun massacre as a shooting incident in which six or more people are shot and killed. He collected data on every gun massacre for the 50 years before 2016 and he found that the number of incidents fell during the assault weapons ban between 1994 and 2004. According to some of his findings which were published by the Washington Post, gun massacres fell 37 percent during the ban period and in the ten years after it lapsed in 2004, they went up an alarming 183 percent. Klarevas points out that the ban on high-capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds made a huge difference. He says that if that is regulated, there will be a considerable drop in massacres and fatalities. The original 1994 assault weapons ban was allowed to expire by, guess who, our favorite group of people in the whole wide world the REPUBLIKANS, under the direction of Mitch McConnell and the wallets of the NRA. The assault weapons ban expired on September 13, 2004. Legislation to renew or replace the ban was proposed numerous times unsuccessfully. Between May 2003 and June 2008, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, and Representatives Michael Castle, R-DE, Alcee Hastings, D-FL, and Mark Kirk, R-IL, introduced bills to reauthorize the ban.[39] At the same time, Senator Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, and Representative Carolyn McCarthy, D-NY, introduced similar bills to create a new ban with a revised definition for assault weapons. None of the bills left committee.[40] Efforts to pass a new federal assault weapons ban were made in December 2012 after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in Newtown, Connecticut.[44][45][46] On January 24, 2013, Senator Feinstein introduced S. 150, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 (AWB 2013).[47] The bill was similar to the 1994 ban, but differed in that it would not expire after 10 years,[46] and it used a one-feature test for a firearm to qualify as an assault weapon rather than the two-feature test of the defunct ban.[48] The GOP Congressional delegation from Texas, and the NRA, condemned Feinstein's bill.[49] On March 14, 2013, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a version of the bill along party lines.[50] On April 17, 2013, AWB 2013 failed on a Senate vote of 40 to 60.[51] The REPUBLIKAN controlled Senate. It’s time, after numerous mass shootings involving this weapon, to stop selling them to civilians. Now. I realize there’s nothing that can be done about the hundreds of thousands of these weapons that are out there, but we have to start legislating the removal of this weapon of mass destruction from the general population before more innocent victims are torn to shreds. The NRA be damned. There is no civilian use for this weapon that can be justified. It isn’t effective as a hunting rifle (unless you want your kill already filleted), it is not an effective home defense weapon and it shouldn’t be in the hands of anyone but trained military personnel!!! The first questions that should be asked of ANY Congressional candidate before you vote on November 6th are 1) do you support the ban of assault weapons? 2) Do you take contributions from the NRA? The answer to these questions should be enough to persuade you to vote either for or against. There is no middle ground here. PLEASE VOTE FOR CANDIDATES WHO WILL SUPPORT TOUGHER GUN REGULATIONS!! YOUR VERY LIFE MIGHT DEPEND ON IT!!!! OUR NATION TORN ASUNDER!!!
A sitting President of the United States who champions neo Nazis after Charlottesville, praises a politician for body slamming a reporter, eggs on his enraptured followers with cries of “lock her up!” and “CNN sucks!” at his so called political rallies, calls the media “the enemy of the people”, states that a pending arms deal with the Saudis is more important than the life of a Washington Post journalist, who Jared’s good pal MDS has sliced and diced in Turkey, routinely calls his political opponents names like “Pocahontas” and claims Democrats are part of an angry “mob”-this is what Donald J. Trump has brought with him in the last two years. And don’t forget Twitter. And now, we have one of his ardent supporters mailing pipe bombs to key Democratic political figures and former Presidents, black citizens being singled out and gunned down at a grocery store in Louisville, KY because of the color of their skin and today a massacre at a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh over their religion with an assault weapon, among others. These acts are the direct result of the toxic political and cultural climate Trump has created, either through his words or actions, ever since he stood on the stage in the early primaries and berated and belittled and bullied everyone in the debate. For him to disclaim any responsibility for the current state of affairs is just another Trump delusion, like so many others he seems to harbor. And instead of his scripted pleas for unity and an end to the violence, he continues to hold his so called political rallies, last night in North Carolina, today in Indiana and place the blame for what is going on elsewhere, in this case the media. His hollow words following the horrific mass shooting today mean nothing when he stands up in front of the NRA convention and revels in their adulation and Second Amendment hypocrisy! He would rather we be discussing the so called “national emergency” involving the FAUX NEWS ‘caravan” of “Middle Easterners” on their way north to rape and plunder, such a crisis we have to have the military intervene!!! He would rather hold his so called “rallies” (look more like KKK gatherings to me!) and call out any Democrat in a street brawl rather than let the voters make up their own minds about the tax breaks for the wealthy and corporate America which have resulted in our largest deficit EVER, about how he and Mitch McConnell and their REPUBLIKAN cronies want to make up this deficit by gutting your healthcare first, and then doing the same to Medicare and Social Security. They don’t want to talk about the REAL issues like these, so they use scare tactics to incite their so called base. Incite it has. It has incited the worst political divisions we have seen in this country in fifty years, since the awful year of 1968. The choice we have in the next week or so is very simple-do we want to have the party responsible for the shape our country is in to continue to tear America asunder or do we elect politicians who will put an end to the insanity? For the sake of our great nation, I hope it is the latter. Until next time….. WORDS MATTER, MR. PRESIDENT!!!
By now everyone is aware of the ongoing threat being carried out against prominent Democratic political figures and former Presidents via a letter bomb campaign, this coming just two weeks ahead of the scheduled mid term elections November 6th. As of this writing, the perpetrator of these heinous deeds has yet to be identified and apprehended, though it is only a matter of time before he or she is and we learn the true motivation behind this terrorist campaign. Until then, anything else is sheer speculation, from Rush Limbaugh and others on the right fringe claiming a left wing conspiracy (what’s new?!?) to those on the left claiming a right wing extremist is responsible. In the meanwhile, what is certain is that for one brief moment Donald Trump rose to the occasion and actually acted Presidential in stating that there was no place for violence in American politics and calling for unity following the discovery of the initial explosive devises. Then, at his so called political rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday night, he reverted to form, joking about his “good behavior” while the lily white crowd (the norm), despite knowing full well of the ongoing bombing threats, chanted “lock her up” as he stood gleefully by in front of his greatest prop, Air Force One and soaked in the misguided adulation. Then, yesterday morning, he attacked the media once again, despite the fact that CNN was in fact a target of the bomber, blaming them for causing the divisive environment which has given rise to these acts of violence. I ask each of you how many times have we heard this President viciously attacking a political rival, from calling Senator Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas to encouraging his followers to chant “CNN Sucks!!” or “lock her up” to praising a red neck Montana politician for body slamming a reporter? How many times has this man had an opportunity to unite but chose his divisive vitriol instead? How many times has the man verbally attacked the FBI and other intelligence agencies, ones that are now responsible for apprehending this cowardly SOB who is attempting to disrupt our political process? Sarah Sanders is sadly mistaken when she denies any culpability on POTUS’s behalf for creating the atmosphere which has in turn encouraged some lunatic out there to do what he or she perceives to be Trump’s bidding, that is to destroy his political opposition, particularly those of whom he has been especially vocal about, like Barrack Obama and Maxine Waters. He is ABSOLUTELY RESPONSIBLE, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!! I hope they catch the perpetrator before anyone is killed or seriously injured by one of these explosive devices. From Russian meddling to domestic terrorism to voter registration restrictions to REPUBLIKAN gerrymandering, there can be no doubt that our democratic process is under attack and it all stems from the top. The best weapon we have at our disposal to put an end to this madness is the power of the ballot box, so make sure to VOTE on November 6th for candidates who will help bring an end to the insanity!!! Our democratic system of government depends on it. Until next time…… GEOGRAPHY 101: INDIA
I wrote a post yesterday about my daughter’s marriage to an Indian immigrant over the weekend and how much I learned in the several days we spent with my new son in law’s parents about their home country of India, their Hindu religion and other aspects of life in a far away land. I thought it would be interesting to review a little of our basic geography from grade school and high school (do they even teach geography anymore? Most Millennials couldn’t probably find India on a map!!) about their native country. India (IAST: Bhārat), also known as the Republic of India (IAST: Bhārat Gaṇarājya),[19][e] is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country (with over 1.2 billion people), and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;[f] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE. In the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, and Buddhism and Jainism arose. Early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires; the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as Southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, and Sikhism emerged, all adding to the region's diverse culture. Much of the north fell to the Delhi Sultanate; the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal Empire. In the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance and led to India's independence in 1947. In 2017, the Indian economy was the world's sixth largest by nominal GDP[20] and third largest by purchasing power parity.[16] Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest-growing major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, and inadequate public healthcare. A nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the second largest standing army in the world and ranks fifth in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal republic governed under a parliamentary system and consists of 29 states and 7 union territories. Apluralisticmultilingual and multi-ethnic society, it is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. Modern IndiaThe British Indian Empire, from the 1909 edition of The Imperial Gazetteer of India. Areas directly governed by the British are shaded pink; the princely states under British suzerainty are in yellow. Historians consider India's modern age to have begun sometime between 1848 and 1885. The appointment in 1848 of Lord Dalhousie as Governor General of the East India Company set the stage for changes essential to a modern state. These included the consolidation and demarcation of sovereignty, the surveillance of the population, and the education of citizens. Technological changes—among them, railways, canals, and the telegraph—were introduced not long after their introduction in Europe.[87][88][89][90] However, disaffection with the company also grew during this time, and set off the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Fed by diverse resentments and perceptions, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh land taxes, and summary treatment of some rich landowners and princes, the rebellion rocked many regions of northern and central India and shook the foundations of Company rule.[91][92] Although the rebellion was suppressed by 1858, it led to the dissolution of the East India Company and the direct administration of India by the British government. Proclaiming a unitary state and a gradual but limited British-style parliamentary system, the new rulers also protected princes and landed gentry as a feudal safeguard against future unrest.[93][94] In the decades following, public life gradually emerged all over India, leading eventually to the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885.[95][96][97][98] Jawaharlal Nehru (left) became India's first prime minister in 1947. Mahatma Gandhi (right) led the independence movement. The rush of technology and the commercialisation of agriculture in the second half of the 19th century was marked by economic setbacks—many small farmers became dependent on the whims of far-away markets.[99] There was an increase in the number of large-scale famines,[100] and, despite the risks of infrastructure development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial employment was generated for Indians.[101] There were also salutary effects: commercial cropping, especially in the newly canalled Punjab, led to increased food production for internal consumption.[102] The railway network provided critical famine relief,[103] notably reduced the cost of moving goods,[103] and helped the nascent Indian-owned industry.[102] After World War I, in which approximately one million Indians served,[104] a new period began. It was marked by British reforms but also repressive legislations, by more strident Indian calls for self-rule, and by the beginnings of a nonviolent movement of non-co-operation, of which Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would become the leader and enduring symbol.[105] During the 1930s, slow legislative reform was enacted by the British; the Indian National Congress won victories in the resulting elections.[106] The next decade was beset with crises: Indian participation in World War II, the Congress's final push for non-co-operation, and an upsurge of Muslim nationalism. All were capped by the advent of independence in 1947, but tempered by the partition of India into two states: India and Pakistan.[107] Vital to India's self-image as an independent nation was its constitution, completed in 1950, which put in place a secular and democratic republic.[108] It has remained a democracy with civil liberties, an active Supreme Court, and a largely independent press.[109] Economic liberalisation, which was begun in the 1990s, has created a large urban middle class, transformed India into one of the world's fastest-growing economies,[110] and increased its geopolitical clout. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture.[109] Yet, India is also shaped by seemingly unyielding poverty, both rural and urban;[109] by religious and caste-related violence;[111] by Maoist-inspired Naxalite insurgencies;[112] and by separatism in Jammu and Kashmir and in Northeast India.[113] It has unresolved territorial disputes with China[114] and with Pakistan.[114] The India–Pakistan nuclear rivalry came to a head in 1998.[115] India's sustained democratic freedoms are unique among the world's newer nations; however, in spite of its recent economic successes, freedom from want for its disadvantaged population remains a goal yet to be achieved.[116] Geographyndia comprises the bulk of the Indian subcontinent, lying atop the Indian tectonic plate, and part of the Indo-Australian Plate.[117] India's defining geological processes began 75 million years ago when the Indian plate, then part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, began a north-eastward drift caused by seafloor spreading to its south-west and, later, south and south-east.[117] Simultaneously, the vast Tethyn oceanic crust, to its northeast, began to subduct under the Eurasian plate.[117] These dual processes, driven by convection in the Earth's mantle, both created the Indian Ocean and caused the Indian continental crust eventually to under-thrust Eurasia and to uplift the Himalayas.[117] Immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast trough that rapidly filled with river-borne sediment[118] and now constitutes the Indo-Gangetic Plain.[119] Cut off from the plain by the ancient Aravalli Range lies the Thar Desert.[120] The original Indian plate survives as peninsular India, the oldest and geologically most stable part of India. It extends as far north as the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel chains run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in the east.[121] To the south, the remaining peninsular landmass, the Deccan Plateau, is flanked on the west and east by coastal ranges known as the Western and Eastern Ghats;[122] the plateau contains the country's oldest rock formations, some over one billion years old. Constituted in such fashion, India lies to the north of the equator between 6° 44' and 35° 30' north latitude[g] and 68° 7' and 97° 25' east longitude.[123] The Kedar Range of the Greater Himalayas rises behind Kedarnath Temple (Indian state of Uttarakhand), which is one of the twelve jyotirlinga shrines. India's coastline measures 7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi) in length; of this distance, 5,423 kilometres (3,400 mi) belong to peninsular India and 2,094 kilometres (1,300 mi) to the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep island chains.[124] According to the Indian naval hydrographic charts, the mainland coastline consists of the following: 43% sandy beaches; 11% rocky shores, including cliffs; and 46% mudflats or marshy shores.[124] Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal.[125] Important tributaries of the Ganges include the Yamuna and the Kosi; the latter's extremely low gradient often leads to severe floods and course changes.[126] Major peninsular rivers, whose steeper gradients prevent their waters from flooding, include the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the Kaveri, and the Krishna, which also drain into the Bay of Bengal;[127] and the Narmada and the Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea.[128] Coastal features include the marshy Rann of Kutch of western India and the alluvial Sundarbans delta of eastern India; the latter is shared with Bangladesh.[129] India has two archipelagos: the Lakshadweep, coral atolls off India's south-western coast; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a volcanic chain in the Andaman Sea.[130] The Indian climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert, both of which drive the economically and culturally pivotal summer and winter monsoons.[131] The Himalayas prevent cold Central Asian katabatic winds from blowing in, keeping the bulk of the Indian subcontinent warmer than most locations at similar latitudes.[132][133] The Thar Desert plays a crucial role in attracting the moisture-laden south-west summer monsoon winds that, between June and October, provide the majority of India's rainfall.[131] Four major climatic groupings predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane.[134] Thanks to WIKIPEDIA for providing today’s lesson. In a nutshell, we can see that India is a very old culture, very diverse in ethnic make up, religious beliefs and geography, from the Himalaya Mountains in the north to the tropical jungles in the south. It is also the second most populated country on the planet, very industrialized with a large military to check their rivals in Pakistan and China. I hope this has been informational. I for one embrace the opportunity to learn about and interact with other peoples from other cultures, unlike the lily white REPUBLIKANS who are desperately trying to isolate our nation from countries such as India with all it and its people have to offer. Until next time, class dismissed!!! AN IMMIGRANT (FAIRY) TALE UPDATE
I wrote a post in my blog a couple of months ago entitled “OMG-MY DAUGHTER’S MARRYING AN IMMIGRANT!!” which detailed the engagement of my daughter to an Indian immigrant and ripped Trump and his senior advisor Stephen Miller for their horrific immigration policy and incredibly cruel treatment of illegal immigrants and their children through the separation and detention of children from their parents at the border. This is all being done in the name of ‘national security’, though in reality it has very little to do with our security. The policy and the proposed border wall were bad policy back then, and are bad policy now. The facts bear this out-the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border has actually INCREASED under this administration, despite his attempts to stem the flow and usual lies and misinformation about it. Now an update. My daughter was married to her fiancé over the weekend, in a small ceremony attended by just the parents and my wife’s sister and her husband. The bride groom’s parents, whom we were meeting for the first time, were an absolute delight, just as I knew they would be when I wrote the original piece. They were kind, generous, thoughtful and caring parents, as well as hard working professionals (all three of them are engineers, father, mother and son!) who without hesitation agreed to allow their only son to marry an American woman very far from home because they too realized how much in love these young people were. In short, my daughter married a man that ANY father would be proud to call “son”, and my daughter has married into a family whose culture is very different than ours in many ways but the same in many others. They welcomed her into their family without hesitation and with loving, open arms. Following the small civil ceremony on Saturday, we then attended a Hindu temple for the abbreviated version of the Indian marriage ritual on Sunday, one that was conducted by an Indian priest. It was a very educational experience to learn of the many differences that exist between our cultures in terms of beliefs and ceremony, but that fundamentally every person is held to the same standards of respect for each other and a true love of life achieved through natural balance in all things. My daughter was attired in the traditional Indian wedding saree, and her husband and his father wore the traditional Dhoti. The bride grooms parents chanted prayers to various Hindu Gods, sang a beautiful song and actively participated in the ceremony from start to finish. It was quite a show, and I felt fortunate to have been allowed to witness it. This is what Trump’s immigration policy would jeopardize-the true melting pot that made America the great country it became. He claims to only want to limit immigrants from Muslim or South/Central American countries into the United States, but the fact of the matter is that he wants to limit ALL immigration in order to perpetuate the stranglehold that he believes his old white cronies have on power and to postpone the inevitable globalization that is becoming the accepted norm in other parts of the world. The policy is flawed, to say the least, as are the people behind it like Stephen Miller. The only way we can truly remove this ugly tarnish from our record as the beacon of democracy to the rest of the world is by removing Donald J. Trump from office. The way we can accomplish this is very simple-by VOTING on November 6th!!!! If we can manage to flip the House of Representatives to a Democratic majority, then action can be taken to begin proceedings to either check this insane policy via Congressional intercession or impeachment proceedings to remove CROOKED DONALD and his miserable cohorts from power altogether. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” This is what America REALLY stands for, not some racist immigration policy that has to be enforced with some wall of fantasy or military troops guarding our border. My daughter married an immigrant, and I couldn’t be prouder of both of them!!! If we really want to “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN”, let’s start by living up to these words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty instead of listening to the shrill cries of racism and bigotry being espoused by Trump and his supporters. Until next time…… MURDER, MAYHEM and ANOTHER COVER UP!!
The latest bizarro world news to come from the Saudi regime, undoubtedly given Trump’s seal of approval from the smiling Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo in his disgraceful photo op with the royal family and subsequent meetings with MBS is a real beaut-now we’re being told that, yes, Khashoggi was indeed killed in the Consulate, but it was as a result of a choke hold after a fight erupted. First, they had denied Khashoggi was even killed. Then when Turkey claimed to have evidence of the brutal torture, murder and dismemberment of the journalist at the hands of a Saudi assassination team, including a forensic expert and a bone saw, the Saudis became silent. Then after Pompeo’s visit, and the stonewalling of POTUS calling the Saudi arms deal more important than a man’s life, we now have another narrative and a slew of scapegoats being charged when the man really responsible, MBS, walks away free from any responsibility in Trump’s eyes, and his cozy personal (via Jared Kushner) and inter national relationship with the murderous Saudi regime goes ahead, business as usual. This is what has become of the United States of Trump-the murder of a Washington Post journalist with children who are AMERICAN CITIZENS is tortured in front of the Saudi consul general (who left the country shortly after the murder), brutally murdered and then dismembered and removed and it’s business as usual!!!! Where is Congress in all of this insanity? Oh, I forgot, they’re back home campaigning so they can hold onto power for a few more years and turn their collective backs on a POTUS who is completely and totally out of control. There is NO semblance of governance with meaningful policy; it’s strictly business as usual, as long as it makes Trump and his crony’s bags of cash!! To have publicly stated that the sale of military hardware to Saudi Arabia is more important than the life of a prominent journalist with close ties to the Washington Post (who Trump HATES!), often critical of him and his policies, was all I needed to hear to know that our American values and moral leadership of the free world has disintegrated in a cloud of smoke and mirrors, compliments of the most corrupt President in American history who now can add complicity to murder to his resume. The Saudi story and the news of eighteen officials being implicated in this horrific act of international terrorism has zero credibility, and should NOT be accepted as the real story behind the plot to assassinate Khashoggi. As his wife has requested, an international inquiry should be launched in order to get to the actual facts of the case, not the narrative that Trump and his puppet Mike Pompeo dreamed up and fed to the royal family!!! Its typical Trump strategy- delay, defer and deflect. I hope everyone understands the gravity of the situation facing not only our country but free societies around the globe if this vicious act of barbarism doesn’t lead to the outright removal of MBS from power and the cancellation of our arms deal with this brutal regime. This is why your VOTE in the upcoming election is so very important. Remember Mike Pompeo’s smiling face when he shook hands with the devil himself, all for the sake of the almighty dollar, whether it be for Trump personally or his family or in the name of national security and American jobs. We have sold our soul to Lucifer, and we are going to have to live with the consequences as long as this man remains unchecked by a Democratic House and/or Senate!! The VOTE is the key, and you are holding it!!! PLEASE VOTE ON NOVEMBER 6th!!!!! BLOOD SPORT
I vowed to stay out of the political arena and stick with sports a few weeks ago when I changed the name of this blog from “THE WAR ON COLE” to “MIKE COLE(SELL) SPEAKING OF SPORTS”. I did it because the daily avalanche of negative news coming out of D.C., from the Kavanaugh confirmation spectacle to the Mueller Russia investigation was becoming too much to bear. However, with the recent news of the apparent death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khahsoggi in Turkey at the hands of a Saudi Arabian hit squad, after torturing him in front of the Saudi consul general and dismembering his body with bone saws before removing his remains, and our government’s reaction to the news has once again pushed me back into the arena. When I heard POTUS state that the arms deal and the American jobs it will create is more important than a human life, then sending our Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Riyadh for a photo op with the man responsible for murdering an innocent civilian, smiling and shaking his hand, while trying to promote a narrative that the alleged assassins, already identified via surveillance cameras and visas, were “rogue” members of the security force acting on their own. It was appalling to witness. This is what our government has come to represent in a period of less than two years. We now place more value on geo political alliances, i.e. Sunni vs Shiite Muslims and our economic well being than we do on human life. A well respected journalist who worked for the Washington Post was murdered by order of the Saudi government as a result of his written word criticizing the regime, and our President says and does essentially nothing but that he talked to the king and he denied any knowledge of the matter, and he tended to believe the King just like he believed Brett Kavanaugh, who was, as he was sure, telling the truth as well. To even compare the two situations in the same breath, a SCOTUS appointment vs taking of an innocent victims life, is of itself unconscionable. The Turks obviously would like nothing better than to see the Saudis humiliated on the world stage and claim to have audio evidence to prove that Khashoggi was killed in the consulate, and are now attempting to find forensic evidence to back up their claim. I have no doubt they will find it. For their part, the Saudis are claiming no responsibility. There is very strong evidence that members of the hit squad were in fact members of the royal family’s security forces, including MBS. The visual evidence is overwhelming that government forces carried out the hit, and this could only have been done with the absolute knowledge of the royal family. How does it get to the point where one of our supposedly closest allies feels comfortable enough in their relationship with our President that they can openly assassinate a world renowned journalist in broad daylight inside their own consulate in Turkey? Very simple-first you shine Trump’s image on the side of a building for him and all the world to see, then you agree to spend billions with him on both a family (Jared Kushner) and national security basis for arms and favorable business terms and you take a strong signal from his many tirades against the press, labeling them ‘the enemy of the people”!! You take the calculated risk that economics will far outweigh any human rights issues with Donald Trump, and in that you would be correct. However, what the Saudi regime failed to understand when they ordered this outrageous act of international terrorism is that the free press will NEVER let this issue die until those responsible are brought to justice, be it via Congressional sanctions, cancellation of the arms deal, not participating in their upcoming so called economic forum or continuing to investigate until all the facts are uncovered. There is no cover story or narrative that can shape world opinion like the media, and they are going to have a field day with this story, as well they should. Coming just three weeks before the mid term elections, I believe Trump’s response to this entire sordid episode, as well as the tepid response of Congressional REPUBLIKANS to it, will further erode their chances of retaining the House and possibly even the Senate as well. Our prestige around the world as the shining beacon of freedom and democracy has taken a HUGE hit, and it’s going to take a long time to regain it. All in the name of money, in this case BLOOD MONEY!!! |
About Mike ColeBorn in Hamilton, OH but a proud Kentuckian since age two. One brother and three sisters. Suburban, Catholic middle-class upbringing. Attended Jefferson Community College and Pasadena Community College. Proud father of four and grandfather to seven, and most of all, a concerned American citizen! Are you??? Categories |