YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUSE
Christmas came a little early for the Democratic Party in Virginia last night, with an overwhelming voter repudiation to Donald Trump and the Republikan Party. In a stunning turn of events, Republikan candidates at every level were either defeated by total political newcomers or swept out of office as a result of aligning themselves with Trump and the divisive politics of the their own party, even in the Virginia legislature, which they had dominated for years. This landslide victory should give great encouragement to all of the potential Democratic candidates seeking offices in next years’ mid term elections, and send a strong message to incumbent Republikans at ALL levels of government that after less than one year in office, Trump has negatively impacted their political narrative in a way few could have predicted. They have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as a result of blindly following and endorsing the policies of the worst President this nation has ever suffered. Perhaps this wake up call will set them on a different course on the issues that REALLY matter to the electorate-healthcare, stricter gun control laws, tax reform that actually helps the middle class and doesn’t favor the wealthy and Cabinet level appointees who aren’t interested in their own self interests over the welfare of the people they are supposed to be looking out for. I too am very heartened by these results. I have been consistent in my criticism of Trump and his administration and policies, and it appears that the majority of people in our great country agree with me. It looks like “the Base” is slipping, and that the majority will once again prevail in setting our policies and direction over the vocal minority who are only interested in pursuing their own ideological agendas or enhancing their financial interests at our expense. In the meanwhile, I will continue to speak my mind on these and other topics which affect us all. THE WAR ON COLE is a never ending battle!!
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UNHAPPY ANNIVERSARY
It was one year ago on this Election Day that Donald Trump, with the documented assistance of Russia on multiple fronts, stole the presidency of the United States. Anyone who says the country is better off for it is living in an alternative reality, just like Trump and his cronies. Let’s not forget, as bad a campaign as Pillary Clinton ran, she still won the popular vote by some three million votes! WILBUR ‘the Boss” ROSS Further to my post yesterday about this clown, our Secretary of Commerce, who either failed to properly disclose or did not totally disclose his deep business and financial ties directly to the Kremlin during his confirmation hearings. Now Forbes has revealed that Ross has steadfastly lied about his net worth and overstated it by some TWO BILLION DOLLARS! It was also noted that Ross has a track record of abusive behavior toward employees and was once nicknamed “the Bankruptcy King” My question at this point is how does the Senate, by a 72-27 vote, confirm this guy as Commerce Secretary? It’s the good old boys club, to be sure, but the appointment and confirmation of the cast of clowns trump has assembled defies understanding even by their lame standards!! MURDER in the HIGHLANDS I wrote a post a few weeks back entitled “IT’S NOT ALWAYS BLACK AND WHITE” about the current state of race relations in my hometown of Louisville. There usually isn’t a day that goes by where a shooting or gun related murder in the west end of town isn’t being reported and its business as usual. But on Sunday evening, the mayhem visited itself upon one of the true white enclaves of the city in an area called the Highlands, when two youths, including a fifteen year old, robbed a couple out for an evening walk and subsequently murdered the husband just a week or so after the couples’ honeymoon. My own brother lives within several blocks of where this incident took place, and I can’t tell you how many nights he or he and I have walked the neighborhood streets. Apparently this robbery was totally random. We don’t yet know all of the details, and one of the suspects is still at large, but believe me, nothing will ever be the same in this neighborhood. The publicity generated over this crime will be significant, but unfortunately on paper it’s just another statistic and gun related homicide. Think about it-someone not even old enough to drive robbing someone, carrying a concealed handgun and ultimately using that weapon to murder an innocent victim. What is wrong with this picture?!? DAN JOHNSON and METRO COUNCIL I wrote a post last week entitled “LOUISVILLE LEFT HOLDING ITS JOHNSON” detailing how the Louisville Metro Council cut a deal with Councilman Dan “the Tool” Johnson allowing him to retain his seat provided that he adhere to a strict regimen of rules governing his future behavior. I railed against this arrangement and the lack of backbone displayed in the Council’s 13-6 vote in favor of this resolution. Well, it turns out; I was premature in my judgment. To quote the words from a Grateful Dead song, it looks like Johnson was set up like a bowling pin!! Within two days of this resolution, Johnson has already been accused of several violations in his conduct, and the committee charged with monitoring his behavior is set to kick him off Metro Council, with cause, this afternoon at a meeting rescheduled from yesterday to comply with open meeting requirements. His attorney can cry wolf all he wants and threaten law suits and whatever other bluster he can throw out, but the fact of the matter is his client, Dan Johnson, is an absolute disgrace to the entire city, and his mere presence at ANY governmental function is an outrage at this point. I say GOODBYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE!! WILBUR ROSS: Secretary of COMMUNERCE
Let’s play this tune one more time, shall we? Wilbur Ross, Trump cabinet appointee to head the Commerce Department, withheld information regarding his past and current business links with Putin, namely his involvement with Navigator Holdings, a shipping company that has “significant ties to a Russian oligarch subject to American sanctions and Putin’s own son-in-law!” Now members of the Senate Committee on Commerce which was involved in the original confirmation hearings for Ross want to know why he was not more forthcoming with regards to his divestiture of holdings which he admitted were an obvious conflict of interest. Imagine that-a Trump cabinet level appointee who is lying about his involvement with Russia (why does this same song keep playing over and over in my mind???) and is using his position to further his own financial agenda at the expense of us, the American taxpayers! When questioned about this nefarious relationship and his previous testimony before Congress, he dismissed the reporter’s question as “silly” and refused to answer. Duck and deflect is the strategy that this administration is perfecting like no other before it. And I’ll repeat what I have stated when reporting on at least half a dozen Trump cabinet level appointees currently in place, you wouldn’t believe the background of these elitist wealthy cronies he has surrounded himself with. This guy has the same pedigree-deep ties to coal, Wall Street and steel that specialized in acquiring bankrupt companies (he was called “the King of Bankruptcy”-nice ring to it, huh?) that the others who were supposed to be a part of a process described by Trump himself as “draining the swamp”; instead we have built the Hoover Dam in its place with guys like this! Trump bragged that he had assembled the ‘greatest cabinet ever”-what he has put together is the biggest group of unqualified buffoons to EVER hold Cabinet level posts, and as I have previously stated, we are paying the price every day. The sad part is that in many cases we won’t be aware of the significance of the damage these individuals and their fearless leader have caused until they are long gone, moving into another position where they can hustle the American people. Final thought-is there ANYBODY in Trump’s administration who IS NOT tainted by the stench of scandal in their involvement with Russia?!? Somebody, Mueller, Congress, Washington Post or New York Times please get to the bottom of this so the American people can see just how deep this manipulation and deception goes-the future of our republic depends on it!!! HERE WE GUN AGAIN!
A new month and yet another horrific mass shooting of innocent victims in a church in Texas involving a deranged individual who had somehow managed, despite his background of abhorrent behavior, to get his hands on an assault rifle. We should probably more correctly begin identifying these guns for what they really are-weapons of mass destruction! This was a man trained to kill as a result of his military service, tainted as it was. And it appears he chose his target based upon the fact that it would be some time before first responders could get to the scene. Innocent children and women were among those gunned down in the attack. He was also wearing a bullet proof vest. Dressed to kill. And our President, Donald Trump, immediately proclaims that it “isn’t a gun thing”, but rather a tragic example of a mental health problem. This type of reaction might be expected from the NRA (see my previous post following the Las Vegas massacre entitled “the NRA IS KILLING US ALL”), but seems highly inappropriate coming from the President. And oh, by the way, remember the clamor for the restriction of the “bump stock” accessory used in the Vegas shootings to turn a semi-automatic weapon into one that is essentially full automatic capable of firing hundreds of rounds within minutes? Seems as though the NRA and their Republikan stooges in Congress have found a way to take even this obvious piece of legislation off of the table. Think about that for a minute. There is only one solution to this problem, a problem which seems to be growing worse as time goes on (see my previous post regarding the media coverage of these events). This future sale of these weapons of mass destruction must be BANNED. Period. Until that day comes, we are going to continue to be plagued by these horrific episodes, and nobody is immune-you can be in church, at school or at a concert venue and if someone has one or more of these weapons to unleash, the body count will just continue to rise. WAKE UP AMERICA! ASSAULT RIFLES ARE KILLING US ALL!! BAN THEM NOW!!!! Or you might be the next victim. The Ongoing Saga of SCOTT PRUITT
Just a brief follow up to the post I wrote yesterday regarding the recent governmental climate report and the current state of affairs in the Environmental Destruction Agency under the misdirection of Scott “I didn’t do it” Pruitt. I read in the USA Today, otherwise known as “McPaper” due to the lightweight nature of the publication, that Pruitt is set to speak this week at the board meeting of the American Chemical Council, a special interest group which has arduously lobbied against stricter regulations for the chemical industry. What a surprise-a Trump administration Director who is putting the interests of a special interest group (which undoubtedly filled the Republikan coffers with large amounts of money) ahead of the very public they are sworn to protect. Once again. I spent many years of my industrial sales career selling equipment to a wide variety of chemical plants all across the south. I can tell you from personal experience some of the deadliest chemicals known to mankind are being produced, stored and shipped across this country within a stones throw of our largest population centers. We’re talking about chemicals like phosgene, chlorine, ammonia and various types of acids to name but a few. Any suggestion that the strict regulations governing the production, storage and shipment of these chemicals should be relaxed for purely economic consideration is nothing short of foolhardy. However, given the recent track record of this agency, don’t be surprised if and when it happens. And oh, by the way, the news media and the public are not welcome at the luxury golf resort in South Carolina where the meeting is to be held! I wonder if Scott Pruitt will be arriving in a private jet…… Climate Change Report, the Environmental Destruction Agency (EDA) and Scott Pruitt
Despite the best efforts of the Trump administration and the unqualified cronies he has placed in key positions to guide environmental policy, the government just released a long awaited report developed by a number of qualified scientists, not politicians, who unequivocally state that rising temperatures are specifically to blame for the changes in our climate. These rising temperatures are a direct result of the emission of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. These emissions are specifically caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal in power plants around the world. There is no disputing this fact. The catastrophic hurricanes, flooding and wildfires we have experienced just in this past year can be directly attributed to this global warming and subsequent climate changes. And yet, as I described in a couple of previous posts entitled “Death of an Agency” and “the Unclean Energy Act”, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has steadfastly maintained that climate change is a myth and that his agency should essentially do all it can to dispel it, going so far as to order the removal of the wording “climate change” from several governmental reports and not allowing his scientific charges to attend various conferences on the effects of global warming and climate change. His boss, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, is equally unqualified for his position, and even stated during his ill fated presidential campaign that he would abolish the agency! Both men are unabashed supporters of the coal industry, and are doing everything within their power to try to resurrect this corpse of an industry, despite the fact that alternative energy sources such as wind and solar energy have proven to be far more cost effective and environmentally friendly. Trump has pulled us out of the Paris Climate Accord announcing to the world that the United States disregards all scientific evidence that fossil fuels such as coal are severely damaging the environment but we will become much more competitive in the world coal market by eliminating the safeguards put in place by the EPA to regulate these power plants and control the amount of emissions. There is also a third player in this triumvirate of clowns supposedly responsible for protecting our enviroronment, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, another subject of a previous post entitled “Zinke, Whitefish Energy and Something’s Fishy in Puerto Rico”, who has set his own agenda for dismantling environmental protections under his jurisdiction. What these three buffoons are doing to negatively impact our future and the futures of our children and grandchildren is mind boggling, and flies directly in the face of scientific and economic facts. They need to be reigned in before it’s too late for all of us-it is already too late for many of the people of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico!!! LOUISVILLE LEFT HOLDING ITS JOHNSON!
There have been many times I have been proud of my hometown of Louisville, KY-home of the Kentucky Derby, Muhammad Ali, Louisville Slugger and the athletic accomplishments of the University of Louisville. Recently the city moved a controversial civil war statue honoring Confederate soldiers off of the university campus, and the city has made significant strides in attempts at diversification and acceptance of all minorities. Like a great many other cities, ours is plagued by gang violence, the drug epidemic and gun related homicides-all serious problems, to be certain. Problems requiring the undivided attention of the community, including the mayor, Metro Council and law enforcement to name but a few. Instead, we are left with perhaps the most unbelievable decision ever made by our Metro Council, the decision to allow Councilman Dan Johnson (how incredibly appropriate!!!) to retain his seat after he admitted to groping another Metro Council member and dropping his pants to another administrative aide in the parking lot. Imagine, with all of the ongoing discussion and revelations about sexual harassment in the workplace, ( i.e. see anyone who ever worked in Hollywood), our supposedly intelligent elected officials on the Metro Council voted by 13-6 to allow this “tool” to stay on, providing he strictly adheres to an incredible list of restrictions that essentially put him under home incarceration conditions. The logic of those voting to allow Johnson to retain his seat, including by the women who voted that way, is that if he was kicked off the council, a costly legal battle would ensue, they would lose and he would retain his seat with full privileges as opposed to the settlement reached allowing him to stay on but under “house arrest”, so to speak. This reasoning is absurd when examined in context. The Councilwoman who was groped, Councilwoman Jessica Greene, saw her own mother expelled from Metro Council for ethical violations!! To assume a lengthy legal battle would be lost is coming to a conclusion not based upon facts but upon convenience. Monetary convenience. It’s really no wonder that the rest of the country hears about a story like this coming out and then shrugs its collective shoulders and says “that’s Kentucky fer ya!” This is not one of our prouder moments, and combined with the recent scandals involving the University of Louisville, including the firing of its athletic director and men’s basketball coach and allegations of pay for play, as well as strippers and hookers for recruits, detracts greatly from what is otherwise a decent place to live and raise a family. The University of Louisville had the courage to do the right thing in separating themselves from those associated with these scandals, and our Metro Council should be ashamed they did not demonstrate the same courage in their lame actions. Last polling I saw, roughly 80% agreed with me. I have already written my Councilman, who voted for this agreement, to advise him he would not be getting my vote in the next election, and I would advise those who disagree with this decision to do likewise in their respective districts. In the meantime, good luck holding onto your Johnson……. Click herTERRORISM and the MEDIA
I have been a staunch supporter of the media since I undertook writing this blog as our last line of Constitutional protection against President Trump and the Republikan controlled Congress even as they have come under attack on a regular basis by him and his mouthpieces, Sarah “Huckleberry” Sanders, Faux News, Steve “Loose Cannon” Bannon among others. However, after watching the news coverage of the terrorist attack in NYC, I believe it is time to call the media out over the extent of the coverage and the platform it gives rise to for terrorist groups such as ISIS. When they see the twenty-four hour news cycle completely dominated by coverage of this horrific event, they have to be thrilled with the attention called to their inhumane cause and those deranged individuals who perpetrate these insane acts. This can only serve to inspire other potential recruits to their cause. It is my belief that of course these incidents, and others such as the Las Vegas and Orlando shootings need to be reported on, but why not give us the pertinent facts of the matter and move on to the next important item of the day in the cycle? Why is it necessary to continue to report the same information over and over again and dredge up any inane piece of information possible to perpetuate the story? I’m not talking about an active shooter situation, where timely reporting can save countless lives. I’m talking about the aftermath of these hate inspired incidents, where continuous coverage only serves to give additional credence to these criminals and their heinous acts of terror, usually perpetrated upon totally innocent men, women and children who have nothing whatsoever to do with their political or sociological struggles. As long as we continue to give such extensive coverage to these attacks, the more emboldened the would be “lone wolves” become, seeking their day in the spotlight to promote their radical ideology and achieve their so called fifteen minutes of fame. I think it’s time we take a long hard look at this issue and ask the media to respond in a more restrained fashion when reporting on such incidences. Let’s not give these scumbags another platform for spreading their evil. Seems like a reasonable request from where I sit. e to edit. Hannity plus Huckabee Equals Huckster
HUCKSTER: To promote or sell (typically something of questionable value). I read this morning that Trump’s favorite mouthpiece, Sean Hannity of Faux News, made a rather glaring mistake in his ridiculous commentary on the terrible injustice of the Mueller investigation; it seems he made mentioned of “President” Clinton while railing, as usual, about the former Secretary of State. This comment says everything you need to know about the only message this network is concerned about getting out-Trump is the victim of the liberal media and all of the world’s problems are directly attributable to Hillary Clinton! Meanwhile, Sarah “Huckleberry” Sanders holds another briefing full of flat out lies and distortions while trying to deflect away from the negative commentary that has consumed this president and his agenda. It has seriously gotten to the point where I can barely force myself to watch these charades, and especially Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Her attempts to defend the indefensible are actually very compelling viewing when looked at as another television reality show (“To Tell the TRUTH???), but hard to believe when you realize you are listening to the official spokesperson of the Trump administration. I frankly don’t know how the Washington press corps manages to get through these farcical briefings without just getting up and walking out. There have been a number of Presidents who have had their differences with the press, but never one as openly hostile or one who distorted the facts as egregiously as Trump. I had written a previous post entitled “Beat the Press” a few weeks back, and since that time things have only gotten worse, with Trump commenting about lifting Network licenses (not literally possible) and constantly complaining about the so called “fake news. And trying desperately to deflect from the real news story of the moment, his collusion with the Russians to steal the election from Hillary Clinton by any means necessary. We all know from our previous history, for example, Watergate, the Vietnam Conflict, weapons of mass destruction, etc. that our government lies to us. However, this administration and the dubious mouthpieces they deploy to spread their message of polarization and distorted or fabricated version of current or past events has taken it to a whole new level. The name of the game is spin and deflect, and this group is proving to be very effective at it. Let’s not lose sight of the real news through all of the smoke and mirrors being put up by this “House of Cards”. The so called base of 30% will believe anything they here and see on Faux news, as confirmed by a poll which showed nearly half of the Republicans did not believe the Russian investigation was a serious issue, and apparently believe Hillary Clinton actually is sitting in the White House. We should be so lucky!!! |
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 |