Interesting Conflicts......

 

(from Wikipedia) Drain the swamp is a term which has been used by American politicians. The term alludes to the historical draining of swamps to keep mosquito populations low to combat malaria.

Well, President Elect Trump sure is changing the nature of that phrase. Unless you can call billionaire Wall Street friends mosquitoes! 

Here is a link to the latest of the greatest, most of whom are billionaires and either have no government experience, or have decades of it.

Latest Trump Nominees

The issue isn't not having real experience, its about the fact that he isn't draining a swamp so much as he is improving the beach front property of the DC Country club!

Apparently the thinking process is if they are billionaires they cant be bought.........Yeah, show me a billionaire that doesn't care about his Wall Street portfolio and investments and I'll show you a picture of me.........

Hell, I get jittery about my 401K, so why wouldn't they be worried about making a decision that could influence their holdings?

I thought he was going to come in and get rid of these guys and have real, honest hard working types that truly cared about the country come in and shake things up.

BUT, we all know that wont ever happen. There isnt anything new to be tried. Its all been done before. And if you think getting rid of Obama Care and putting people in jail for burning the flag is going to solve anything, then you are in for a BIG disapointment.

4 years from now, all we will have is a few more jobs, (which we will have anyway with the current policies in place) and maybe a few pretty bridges, but the things we will lose is what worries me.

Loss of a few constitutionally provided rights. Loss of Social Security, loss of Medicare, loss of widespread medical coverage.  

They are all over Repealing this stuff, but short on detail on what they will replace it with.  I can't miss what I never had, but the few items I mentioned above affects 10's maybe even 100's of millions of citizens!

Do you really think we are going to sit idly by and watch it be torn to shreds by a bunch of BILLIONAIRES? 

The RIGHT really didnt think this through. 

YOU are the people these programs help, and YOU will be the ones most affected!

But I bet the Pina' Coladas will be Spectacular!

 

I was the fIrst one in.......... and now I'm the first one out!

So to kick off the inaugural edition of the Puzzle Palace I was motivated by a story that I recently saw on the Rachel Maddow show.

Now I know some of my Right wing friends will immediately coil up like a cat waiting to pounce on a mouse after I say that, but lets just say I feel the same way when I hear the names Sean Hannity and Bill O'reilly, so settle down and let me finish the damn story!

Apparently Gov Chris Christie...(who in the hell names their kid that anyway)?  Its like naming your child Smit Smithy or Bill Williams....anyway I digress.. Chris Christie used to be the NJ state Attorney General. His job was to prosecute bad guys and put them in prison. Apparently he was pretty good at that and he used that as a springboard to run for Governor.

Now why am I telling you all of this? Well it turns out several years ago he had to prosecute a case of a Billionaire Real Estate Developer..(no not Trump, we could only wish that to be true) but an obscure guy by the name of Charles Kushner.

Now it seems Mr. Kushner who was a (bigly)? (big League)? ..does anyone know what the hell it is Trump says?  anyway, he was a major contributor to the Democratic Party and without giving too much detail, lets just say his empire was built on sawdust and Gov Christie managed to put him in prison for a VERY LONG time.

Now for those of you that follow this sort of thing, that name Kushner may sound familiar......If you said, that sounds like Trumps daughter Ivanka (who in the hell names their kids Ivanka)? Husbands last name, then you would be right!

Either Christie didn't know that, or maybe he thought they would let bygones be bygones...I mean, Trump is an upstanding and righteous fellow that would never stoop that low.........

Has anyone watched Kevin Spacey in the Netflix show House of Cards?
(a blueprint for the Trump Administration)

Anyway, so It seems our Gov Christie was flying a little too close to the sun and his wings made of wax melted under him like butter under a grilled cheese sandwich (insert Christie fat joke here) and now his hopes of being Attorney General along with it!

So in his first real act as President Elect, Trump is using his power and influence to pay back the loyalty of people that supported him in a very 3rd world dictator sort of way.

And that's just in the 1st week!  Thats why I started this Blog! You just cant make this shit up!

Stayed tuned for more Puzzle Palace blogs, They haven't even driven the clown car out of the Trump Tower garage and things are already looking promising for some of the best Politics watching of the 21st century.

Bring on the Popcorn! Its going to be a ratings bonanza!

A little birdie told me so.......

 

Back in the early days of Presidential Campaigning,  the Candidates used to stand on whatever tall place was available to give speeches and have town forums.

In most cases it was on a tree stump or wooden crate...Hence the old cliches (on the stump) and (get off your soap box). 

But now our newly elected President has taken this to a whole new level of technology.  

TWITTER!

Now a our leaders don't even need to call a hastily arranged Press conference in the middle of the night to alert the public of an important detail or rapidly unfolding event.

 

All Trump has to do is sit on the Golden Commode at Trump tower and say whatever comes to mind and it instantly becomes news to millions of his followers.

At least with Hillary, we could delete the email, (pun intended), with Trump he just figures out a way to twist a lie to almost be a truth in less than 140 characters and everyone downstream laps it up like a kitten in the kitchen with a bowl of milk.

How is this going to work after he gets sworn in?  Do we let him just rant and rave like a teenage girl after Homecoming? Just got the keys to the country,  gonna make great things happen now! OR, Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran!

The one thing about a press conference is he has to answer questions on the fly and needs to know a lot about whatever subject he is asked about.  I honestly think Trump has no depth. WYSIWYG....(what you see is what you get).

So in order for him to remain the Man in the High Tower, and keep the ill informed and unsophisticated fired  up, he just takes whatever good news is in the headlines and makes it seem like it was his idea all along, or he takes something bad and blames it on the liberal boogeyman and keeps turning the hate pot.

He already is trying to dodge the media by not letting them follow him or set up a pool reporter.

This is the kind of stuff  3rd  world Strongmen do. They take power to themselves and take it away bit by bit from the rest of the citizens.

If you have never read 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell, now would be a good time. 

Here is a link to the Kindle version

I want my news about government from an impartial 3rd party..The 4th estate as its called is what makes America great! Not a tweet from a Reality TV star. 

There are no checks and balance with a tweet. Once its out there, its hard to disprove and even harder to retract. You cant prove a negative. Headlines are on page 1, retractions on page 21. Another old cliche, you cant UN-ring a bell.

Here is a perfect example of what to expect in the future:

Trump stops Ford from moving car production to Mexico

He will never be a Uniter. As long as he can go around unchecked and say whatever he wants, whenever he wants, the only thing for sure, is no one can rest easy. 

To twist a phrase, Trump is like a box of chocolates, You never know what your going to get! 

And that was only 67 characters..............😁

Watch out for the Decepticons!

Where is Optimus Prime when we need him?

Well, his real name is Mark Zuckerburg, the leader of the largest FAKE news organization on the planet!

Only he is not Optimus, he IS a Decepticon! He allows FaceBook to act like the Wild Wild West! No rules, no editorial board and no interest in maintaining law and order.

What FaceBook needs is a NEW marshal in town, someone to clean up the streets and run the cattle rustlers and bank robbers out of town for good.

FAKE news on FACEBOOK has been happening since the 2nd day it was around. It probably started out with guys lying to their friends about who they slept with and as it moved into the mainstream, the lies got bolder and bolder!

And with the invention of the MEME...the perfect way for the uneducated and ill informed to post misinformation with just a mouse click, you have the same crowd believing its true and re-posting it.

If the Associated Press or Reuters made even a minor mistake in a story line it would immediately send out a correction or in some cases retract the story.  But with the internet, everything is permanent. Nothing ever goes away or stays deleted.

Just ask Hillary!  

And that's not the worst of it.....once it has been shared, its is now forever spinning around on the inter-webs for eternity.

Sadly,  when self proclaimed local sheriffs, (like myself), try and research the issue and make a local correction,  thinking that the towns people would appreciate the fact, many people have decided that if it FEELS true than that's all that matters!

Then when you think things couldn't get any worse, we elect the biggest Decepticon of all time as President and now he puts a voice to the FAKE news of the day and an entire generation of the uninformed say I told you so!

Conspiracy theories run rampant, LIES become truth, Up is down and black is white and people just stop caring.....as long as my friend sees my pictures of food and grandchildren, its all good.

The saddest part of all of this is, FaceBook thinks it has had nothing to do with electing Trump as President.

In reality, its role was giving a voice to those who otherwise would have remained in the shadows. And as each lie was touted as NEWS and left unchecked,  it compounded itself as it spun around the inter-webs until no one can distinguish fact from fiction.

Between Hillary being a crook and Obama is taking away our guns, to children dying in ambulances being blocked by protestors, if you want to believe it can happen then just Create a MEME that says it and share it with your friends.

I remember reading Animal Farm by George Orwell back in 8th grade. It told this story almost to a tee, but instead of FaceBook, the animals only had a barn wall and a can of whitewash. 

There is no whitewash for FaceBook.

So Mark, here is a simple solution:  every-time you log onto FaceBook it should have a warning page....

ATTENTION,

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears, and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call ... The FaceBook Zone.

Faux News, the art of deception.

I know it looks alot like Fox News and in alot of ways they are the same.

Now, I know that my right wing friends will automatically say, what about the Clinton News Network or MSNBC (I dont think they have a catchy name for it yet).

Well, they certainly have their detractors and bomb throwers, but the Right wing seems particularly adept at spreading manure around in large doses and then brainwashing their followers to tell everyone it smells like roses and bacon!

There is actual Physiological studies that show their is a difference in the brains of people that are right wing or left wing!

Think I'm making this up?   NOPE and here is the study:

LEft/brain Right/brain

And its not from a partisan website either!

So it's actually a chemical reaction. 

The really strange part for me at least, is how they buy into the Bullshit Hook, line and sinker!

I have friends that believe Rush Limbaugh is a highly educated authority...ON EVERYTHING!

He takes an ounce of truth.....and then spreads enough manure around it to grow a forest! Then he turns on the Entertainment machine and ups the volume to 11 and all of a sudden everyone within earshot thinks because he is yelling and arguing that no one else will admit this because it is such damning evidence, it becomes true...To them at least! 

Then it gets bounced around the echo chamber over and over and over. Just because the same thing comes up 20 times on a google search doesn't mean its true, it just means its been repeated verbatim by 19 other people and its gets pushed to the top of the search engine!

Then someone takes a photo and writes some words on it that say the same thing and VOILA! 

A MEME is born! 

And if the photo has anything in common with the topic, it now takes on a life of its own as well.

 Now its a news report with 2 sentences of bullshit!

Then it gets circulated over and over by the people that hope its true and all of a sudden its everywhere! Well It must be true right? I mean everyone is talking about it!

IN the meantime, RUSH or Hannity or Oreilly are repeating it and FOX NEWS is reporting it as breaking news......because its the hottest topic in the last 24 hours.....

So, the cerebral Lefties that we are, smell a rat and look to sites like Snopes to see if anyone has tried to verify it and find out that its either a re-hash of an already disproved story, or a new twist on an old nugget that keeps popping up like a dandelion on a Trump Golf course!

But, when we quote it on FB as a rebuttal, then instead of the Right brained crowd, using deductive reasoning and saying, oh yeah, what was i thinking...They instead just dismiss the evidence as lie from the left to bury the truth....and now we move from the echo chamber to the hamster wheel!

Now i'm not saying that everything the right likes to accuse the left of is false....and vice versa, but its getting to the point that the truth doesn't matter anymore.

Patrick Moynahan, a famous senator from New York and Ambassador to the UN once said, we can have our own opinions but not our own facts....

NOT ANYMORE! Now we can have our own opiniafact...(?) and as long as I can find someone or  a MEME that supports it, then nothing is going to change my mind!

So whats my point? I dont know, it almost seems pointless to try and argue with people that refuse to be enlightened or educated.

I started this blog to vent more than anything else. I have a hard time anymore being able to keep a lid on myself when i see some of the crap that gets put on FaceBook. But, like alot of you, i live my life on FaceBook.

I schedule my riding (motorcycle and bicycle) with friends on FB. I used to call people on the phone, now I just Messenger them. I cant unplug!

So heres my advice, especially to my right wing friends, if you are even still reading......

Fact check your friends that always agree with you. Before you repost that Flaming post about how some liberal did something tragic that killed several people and were paid off by some mystery billionaire......

Dont be gullible,

Trump really did say he would grab their pussies...but Obama never said he was going to grab your guns....No really he never did.

But I bet you think its the other way around! LOL

So be it.