Can't Drain the Swamp The Asses (Democrats) are every bit as insane as the Elephants (Republicans)
Long ago, way before morals and ethics were downgraded to a fool’s game and legal wasn’t a caricature of justice, a man’s words and his actions generally were meant to have some consistency.
When there is no consistency between the words and actions it is the actions that need to be looked at and judged.
Haunted by the unanswerable questions of my service in Vietnam
Seattle times; Opinion, Nov. 10, 2022
By Denny Wagenman
Special to The Times
As I watch the news on the war in Ukraine, it sends me back many years to how I entered the service in the mid-’60s. Although I wasn’t physically dragged to the bus that I caught in a small Eastern Washington town, it was painful in other ways. I recall my mom crying for hours and unwilling to accompany me to the bus to Spokane. Oh yes, I had choices: Go to Canada or go to jail.
I went from Spokane to California and then back to Fort Lewis for combat training for Vietnam. We were all draftees, and I was assigned the position of squad leader. To this day I don’t know why. Not only was I responsible for my life but for the lives of my squad. Off we went to war in September 1966.
After a week in combat, I asked myself why we were in another people’s land, killing mothers, fathers, grandparents and, worst of all, children. I have never been able to justify that. To this day that haunts me. So, my focus of the war changed from “killing the enemy” to getting my squad and myself home in one piece. Unfortunately, that never happened.
When my year was up, I flew to California, was issued brand-new uniforms and put on a plane to Seattle. Upon arrival, my parents, two sisters and their husbands greeted me at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Hugs and tears flowed. We drove to my sister’s home in Renton for the night before returning home to my small Eastern Washington town. My nephew, in his teens, greeted me and asked, “How many did you kill?” I had to walk outside to regain my composure. I never answered his question.
Here we are 55 years later. A lot has happened over the years. I never see the casualty numbers in the media. I guess the 58,000 American soldiers killed in the war plus some 1,626 still missing don’t mean much today. Nor do the estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians, or the 275,000 to 310,000 Cambodians or 20,000 to 62,000 Laotians. Always wondered how they celebrate veterans day in those countries.
Yes, I am a bitter old man, one who has never shared my experiences in Vietnam with anyone, including my family. No one wins wars. Times were different in Iraq and Afghanistan, as the U.S. soldiers were volunteers. But the results were the same. No one won. Were those wars worth it?
So come Nov. 11, I may be thanked for my service. To this day I don’t know how to respond. Probably nod my head and walk away.
Denny Wagenman
Military service: The ghosts of Vietnam
Nov. 18, 2022
The Seattle Times
By John Humnicky, Woodinville
I read the guest essay by Denny Wagenman about his reluctance to be “proud” of his tour in Vietnam in 1966. I share the same feelings about this war as Wagenman. Although my “conscripted” tour in Vietnam wasn’t until 1971, I asked the same questions that Wagenman outlined in his essay. Why were we in another people’s country killing fathers, mothers, grandparents and children? Apparently, nothing much changed between 1966 and 1971. There were no heroics, no charges of the light brigade and no obvious displays of valor or sacrifice. All there seemed to be was an attitude of making it out alive and in one piece.
Now, 52 years later, I still dwell upon these questions. I do not feel “proud” of what we accomplished in Vietnam. When I came home through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, I was jeered at, yelled at and spat at for being a “baby killer.” When people thank me today for my service, I’m like Wagenman: I nod and walk away.
John Humnicky, Woodinville
41 Senate Republicans Voted Against Veterans' Healthcare
July 2022
A bill aimed at protecting veterans exposed to toxic materials during their service was shut down yesterday in the Senate, in a 55 to 42 vote that failed to meet the 60-vote threshold necessary to advance the legislation.
The new legislation would expand care to 3.5 million veterans who were exposed to burn pits, adding 23 toxic and burn pit exposure-related illnesses to the VA database.
The bill would also expand support for Vietnam-era veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange in places like American Samoa, Cambodia, Guam, Johnston Atoll, Laos and Thailand.
What's killing Staff Sergeant Wesley Black?
The VA doesn't want to talk about it
The unseen toll of traumatic brain injuries
Vietnamese children and the effects of Agent Orange
Wasn't just the Veterans that had a knife shoved in their backs and twisted around.
Yep, still wondering why I bother to go church; I truly want to understand how any mainline churches can support these grubbers, they are nothing to be proud of or write home about.
These are the 41 Republican Senators who voted against the bill:
Mitch McConnell & Rand Paul, Kentucky ; Jim Inhofe & James Lankford, Oklahoma; John A. Barrasso & Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming; Marsha Blackburn & Bill Hagerty, Tennessee; Roy Blunt & Josh Hawley, Missouri; Mike Crapo & Jim Risch, Idaho; Mike Braun & Todd Young, Indiana; Richard Burr & Thom Tillis, North Carolina; Bill Cassidy & John Neely Kennedy, Louisiana; Deb Fischer & Ben Sasse, Nebraska; John Cornyn & Ted Cruz, Texas; Cindy Hyde-Smith & Roger Wicker, Mississippi; Mike Rounds & John Thune, South Dakota; Richard Shelby & Tommy Tuberville, Alabama; Mike Lee & Mitt Romney, Utah; Tom Cotton, Arkansas; Kevin Cramer, North Dakota; Steve Daines, Montana; Joni Ernst, Iowa; Ron Johnson, Wisconsin; Roger Marshall, Kansas; Rob Portman, Ohio; Rick Scott, Florida; Tim Scott, South Carolina; Dan Sullivan, Alaska; Patrick Toomey, Pennsylvania
Jon Stewart, the former talk show host who's become a high-profile veterans advocate, lambasted the Republican senators in a furious, expletive-laden speech.
Stewart noted at one point that the lawmakers being addressed were likely indoors enjoying air conditioning, ignoring the veterans — at least one of whom was wearing an oxygen tube — braving the scorching heat for over an hour to try to make their point.
"You don't support the troops," he said. "You support the war machine."
Approximately 15% of the population could be considered the Loony Left while approximately another 15% could be considered the Wacky Right; that leaves about 70% of us that have to put up with their crap.
Some people are having a difficult time processing this so will attempt to write this in a way that there is little room for confusion; We didn't like Hillary Clinton. Won't use the adjectives and adverbs I'd like to describe my feelings toward Hillary Clinton (the witch who called so many of us deplorable) so because of our sick 2 Party (Asses & Elephants) system the hold your nose choice for lots of people was Trump. Trump got to the point where holding our noses because of the stench made it difficult to breath so now we have Biden.
That does not in any way mean that the Democrats were given some sort of "mandate to govern" it just means that the 70% of us in the center because of the sick 2 Party System had to chose the lesser of the 2 evils again.
Let's be real clear here WE DON"T LIKE EITHER OF YOU! The permeating stench from the anal canal of ASSES & Elephants is disgusting and both groups are blowing it out their asses, they should probably figure it out before the 70% get really ticked. We are tired of the Potentates, we are tired of the Political Parties, we are tired of the Despotic jerks, neither group appears to have any idea of the Biblical concept of Knowledge, or Virtue or Christianity or Morality and what has been done to our kids and grandkids because of the National Debt ($31.149 Trillion) is just mind boggling. We don't like either group of you; Asses or Elephants.
Hypocrites & Bigots
I'm continually amazed with kids when they are young, before they get filters, when they call us adults out for not doing as we say.
As we go through life we are all at one time or another (sometimes on a daily bases) Hypocrites - A person who claims or pretends to have certain beliefs about what is right but who behaves in a way that disagrees with those beliefs.
Life becomes difficult when the Hypocrite becomes a Bigot - A person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief or opinion.
Some of the worst Hypocrites' / Bigots' are older, overweight, white, Christian, male, politicians' that have signed the Grover Norquist Pledge.
These same people have helped rack up Trillions of Dollars in Debts and Deficits (first trillion dollar deficit Bush in 2008, first deficit over $4 Trillion Trump in 2020).
The older, overweight, white, Christian, male, politicians' (The Norquist [God's Own Party] crowd) who start wars for other peoples kids to fight and die for; they will never learn empathy because they won't be/haven't been visiting their children in the hospitals or cemeteries' throughout the land.
To the Evangelical crowd there actually might be a reason or two that people are abandoning churches; a quote by Gandhi: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ”.
Decades ago, Paul Harvey used to say "You can't legislate morality." A couple thousand years ago Jesus Christ said that we were supposed to treat others as we wanted to be treated.
Having the Amoral "Republicans": Newt Gingrich affair with Callista Bisek while Impeaching Bill Clinton because of his time spent with Monica Lewinsky, followed by the multiple affairs of Bob Livingston who took over prosecution of Bill Clinton when Newt Gingrich resigned 1998. Or Pro-Life/Anti-Abortion Tim Murphy and Herschel Walker who pressured their Mistresses to get Abortions. Or how about let's send American Service Personnel to Iraq & Afghanistan [(they have resources and we want them). There were no Iraqis' or people from Afghanistan onboard the planes of 9/11/2001], run up debts and deficits (Starve the Beast), I can grab a woman by the pussy, sleep with and pay off a Porn Star ($130,000) using a Non-Disclosure Agreement President; lecture and legislate the Immoral Democrats. Wow, that wanton pursuit of power, control and money; taking hypocrisy to a whole new level. Has anybody bothered to read George Washington's Farewell Address? The Bible?
And people in the pews wonder why every year there are fewer people showing up for church. Still go to church from time to time and whenever someone spews pro-Trump / Let's go Brandon crap, I have to wonder, this Clown, Trump, this is your picture of Leadership, really. He is repulsively immoral, disgustingly unethical, yet many of his actions have been unfortunately deemed to be legal; when people foolishly believe legal is more important than morals and ethics, evil is released on society. Have to wonder, why still even bother with going to church.
Just don't understand why so many individuals have such a difficult time with the truth and what really kills me is when "Conservative Christians'" are involved in the lies and partial truths. Just so we are clear here, I Believe the Federal Reserve Bank is a very corrupt origination run by a bunch of greedy ( to use the younger generations' vernacular descriptions) Dicks (Wall Street Pays Bankers to Work in Government also Citigroup Wrote the Wall Street Giveaway, House Approved). From articles that I have read Joe Biden and Hunter Biden are involved in some very shady dealings and that Former President Trump is just a Pig and BOTH parties; the Asses and the Elephants are rotten to their core.
In 2017 Trump was President and inflation was starting to show its ugly head so the Federal Reserve Bank with Powell as the Chairman raised rates to above 1% and continued raising rates to the 2.25-2.5% range by December 2018; at which time then President Trump started squealing like a stuck pig, heckling & whining until Powell caved and started reducing rates in July of 2019.
Blaming President Biden for where this nation currently is in the cycle of inflation we are going through without acknowledging that Former President Trump made things worse because of his heckling, whining, browbeating, squealing is disingenuous at best
All of the Conservative Christians that I know are familiar with Professor Google and Professor Siri, the interest rate hikes, up and down, are readily available on Federal Government websites the rants when President Trump was squealing like a stuck pig are also available on the World Wide Web.
Not looking for perfect Christians, read the book, well aware of what happened to the last perfect person, just looking for some honest, fully informed Christians who are willing to speak the truth to all sides
Empathy a Mile in others' Shoes
Here's Why I Don't Automatically Thank Them For Their Service.
Chicken shit refers to behavior that makes life worse than it need be: petty harassment of the weak by the strong; open scrimmage for power and authority and prestige… insistence on the letter rather than the spirit of the law. Chicken shit is so called –- instead of horse- or bull- or elephant shit -- because it is small minded and ignoble and takes the trivial, seriously.
Chicken shit people and organizations’ are easily recognized because of their greedy, self-centered and often-times manipulative actions.
When dealing with contributions to the King of Non-Discloser Agreements (Former President Trump) make sure to read the fine print. I’ve read the Bible through a couple times and never remember reading where Jesus Christ scammed anyone. Following article definitely qualifies as Chicken Shit; brought to you courtesy of the Trump for President Campaign.
Online donors were guided into weekly recurring contributions.
How Trump Steered Supporters Into Unwitting Donations
If the Republicans wish to replace Biden in 4 years it won't be difficult, find somebody other than a Mitch McConnell, a Ted Cruz, a Lindsey Graham, a Mitt Romney, a Newt Gingrich, a Donald Trump or any of the other Fiscal and/or Religious Hippocrates that float around the Republican Party and they will stand a decent chance of being President in 4 Years, unfortunately the rest of us will still be stuck with a smelly 2 Party System.
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Wonder how much the Lobbyists had to spend in 2005 to buy off our Wonderful Elected Officials to create this disaster in student loans (took a few years but with Hedge Fund involvement it smells rank).
SWAMP RATS are AMASSING
Student Loan Debacle was Created by the Republicans
The bankruptcy trap in student-loan debt Hedge Funds Smell Blood In the Student Debt Market (SWAMP RATs Attacking Students) Broken Promises and Debt Pile Up Loan Forgiveness Goes Astray (Fresh Blood for the SWAMP RATS)
President Trump wasn't serious about Draining The Swamp
It is difficult to DRAIN the SWAMP When the SWAMP RATS are your buddies No Morals, No Ethics but Legal in the SWAMP PROBLEM LOCATED, THE HOUSE & SENATE WASHINGTON D.C. Citigroup Wrote the Wall Street Giveaway The House Approved Why were the banks allowed to raid the FDIC? Because that is where the money was.
Steven Mnuchin, President Trump’s Treasury Secretary fitted this description by L Michael Tomkins, EdD, of a Psychopath “A psychopath doesn’t have a conscience. If he lies to you so he can steal your money, he won’t feel any moral qualms, though he may pretend to.” MR. Mnuchin was a founder of OneWest Bank, this video explains how people lost all they had to a group of psychopathic lovers of money, control and power.
Taken for a Ride Again (4 1/2 min video) Loophole manufactured, loophole exploited.
Editor’s note: Our government wastes all kinds of money on corporate welfare and billionaire hedge funds but the billionaires and millionaires in their greed don’t want to pay taxes, so the young men and woman who served and came back damaged are now just an actuarial expense to be kicked to the curb. Make America Great Again; My Ass.
"Stock Options" The Destruction of the Middle Class We The Little People & our kids are about to get hosed Value
The word value has many different meanings and everyone seems to believe their definition is the correct one which leads to confusion, fighting and anarchy because you have your definition and beliefs of value and others have theirs.
1) Wall Street; I am more valuable then you, it is my money and I don't care if you aren't making it, not my problem. Mantra - no taxes
2) The Me, Myself and I crowd : I value my freedom to choose, I can do as I please; Mantra - my choices - my rules.
3) A code or creed, an action for the betterment of the many, instead of the one: Value defined as Sacrifice, Integrity, Morals, Ethics.
The first two definitions are about self, while the third is about community.
There is a colossal difference between Main Street & Wall Street, one is trying to build this Country up and is taking a serious beating, while the other is tearing it apart with little regard as to the damage being done or the lives being wrecked. At this point in the battle between Main Street and Wall Street, Main Street is getting its ass kicked.
Main Street and the Sensible Center have for the most part held to the third definition of value. Wall Street has embraced definitions one & two.
What's killing Staff Sergeant Wesley Black?
The VA doesn't want to talk about it
The unseen toll of traumatic brain injuries
To the Evangelical Churches I am very curious, you helped enable this financial mess with some serious Fiscal and Religious Hypocrites, so, what are you going to do about this unfettered greed?: "Hedge Funds Run by Trump Advisors Made the Most Money Off His Election Win".
A Private Equity (Blackstone Group (SWAMP RAT)-Owned Doctors' Group
Sued Poor Patients Until It Came Under Scrutiny
One private equity chief went so far as to publicly thank Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman until February 2014, whose program of extraordinary economic stimulus has helped push stocks higher, feeding the private equity machine.
“Thank you, Ben Bernanke. I saw him last Thursday, and I thanked him,” Mr. Schwarzman of Blackstone said during a conference in December. “The opportunity for us to be able to attract funds is very, very high.”
Stephen A. Schwarzman, the head of the Blackstone Group, took home $452.7 million, ([$8,690,000] $8.69 million per week) also more than double what he made in the previous year.
Invitation Homes: Dallas-based subsidiary of The Blackstone Group has spent $8 billion buying about 43,000 homes nation wide. That's amazing, veterans are homeless and these people only seem to be concerned about fatter returns. The COO of Blackstone Group is now the Chairman of the Board at Costco (Is he just another Wall Streeter or is he going to protect his employees as founder Jim Sinegal did when he was CEO of Costco, only time will tell).
Wall Street (Blackstone Group) buyers snap up thousands of local homes for rentals
Health system sues thousands of patients, seizing paychecks and putting liens on homes
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Sometimes you can see the problem, you can see the solution, you offer your observations but people just want to do it their way so you finally decide to step back and just let the situation work itself out. This page from the book About Face is the best illustration I have ever read about a man stepping back and letting the cards fall where they may. (His "Give a Damn" was busted.)
"I'd been talking down choppers all afternoon with great success. One of the most recent lifts had carrier a magazine reporter who jumped out of the bird in a yellow short-sleeved shirt and a baseball cap and dashed over to our fallen coconut tree. "Hi" he chirped. "Where's all the action?"
I pointed straight up and went back to fighting the battle. A short time later I noticed the reporter was poking his head over the log, taking a few photographs and coming back down. "Hey, Mr. Reporter," I said, "that's not a very cool thing to do. Stick your camera up and take pictures, but not your head, or it'll be good-bye, Clark Kent." Not 5 minutes later I looked over again, only to see one very dead reporter - he'd taken a slug between the eyes."
"I'd just finished telling a couple Tigers to stack the reporter's body with the rest of our dead when the voice of an unknown chopper pilot came up on the radio. "Savvy Volley 5" (call sign of David Hackworth) he said "this is Outlaw5-3 inbound. Resupply and Pax [passengers]. Mark LZ. Over.
Outlaw 5-3, this is Savvy Volley 5. Look, it's really hot down here, so I'm going to tell you how to get in."
I started giving the pilot my detailed instructions, but almost immediately he interrupted me. "Savvy Volley 5, just tell me where you want me. Don't tell me how to do it, okay? I think I'm a little more qualified than you in this job."
"Look buddy," I snapped, "this is a bad LZ here. Come in a certain way or you'll be blown out of the sky."
"I say again: if you want these supplies, just mark your LZ."
"Roger on that," I said, and popped a smoke.
It was like watching a movie in slow motion. First the ship was coming in. Then the ship was being stitched, as greenish-blue NVA tracers burst out of the dusk-darkened hedgerow on both flanks. Then the ship was losing control. It was quietly beautiful and, in a way, exceptionally funny to see it spin out and crash on the deck. No one was badly hurt... The worst casualty in the incident was the chopper itself: $300,000 worth of lift destroyed with a couple of nine-cent bullets."
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To the Dumbass Republican in Arizona who believes that war is a good idea, you might want to remember that throughout the course of history it's amazing how many mothers and children wound up as collateral damage. Most of us aren't interested in your Dumbass BS but if you insist I hope you and the other people who embrace this Idiot remember this as you are burying your wives, children and grandchildren; bullets are very indiscriminate and most people utilize spray and pray when the shooting starts so don't think your loved ones will be exempt from the nightmare you start.
During World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War the collateral damage ran into the millions. This does not include the hundreds of thousands of innocent dead in Afghanistan and Iraq; there were no Afghans or people from Iraq on the jets that slammed into the twin towers.
The high price of the Cold War 9/1998
That means millions of innocent people died in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan along with scores or American young man and women just so Capitalistic Greed on Wall Street and the Military Industrial Complex could Bank Hundreds of Billions of Dollars.
************** Covid, some facts
Just signed the petition "Governor Inslee rescind executive order 22-13" and wanted to see if you could help by adding your name, we need more support. You can read more and sign the petition here: https://chng.it/dyJJrT7QkV
Thanks!
“We keep documenting the risk they have, but we still aren't addressing it," Dr.Popkin.
“If you really are very obese, fat is the biggest single organ in your body," Dr. Kass.
"The increased intake of carbohydrate in the form of sugar (one half pound per person per Day in 2004 compared with one half pound per person per Year in the 1700s) and the deficiencies of minerals are the basic root causes of obesity." Dr. Wallach
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President Trump wasn't serious about Draining The Swamp
The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail Examples of some Oligarchies How Rotten Are These Guys? How America's Biggest Companies Made China Great Again How Chinese Spies Got the N.S.A.’s Hacking Tools & Used Them for Attacks on US $60 Billion Housing Grab by Wall Street If Landlords Get Wiped Out Wall Street Wins, Not Renters
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Money talks and Criminals walk
In the Criminal Injustice System
Where money rules and the Caricature of Justice Drools
Many many years ago there was a "Christian" lawyer whom I had some respect for, his name was Jay Sekulow he was one of Pres. Trump's lawyers and worked with two lawyers who have in the past defended a rapist and a pedophile. It appears that Mr. Sekulow decided to serve Mammon & Power; the sad part: how many other "Christians" did he drag down the rabbit-hole?
Alan Dershowitz, Ken Starr, Epstein the rapist and the Injustice System Alan Dershowitz, the pedophile and the Criminal Injustice System
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One really has to wonder about the moral stewardship of this nation when Larry Flynt did a better job addressing the moral degradation in this nation than the Religious Self Righteous & Republican Leadership (Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Franklin Graham) of this nation.
My Final Farewell to the Falwells
GOOD RIDDANCE! By Larry Flynt Sep. 01, 2020
The SWAMP Didn't get Drained the Rats are Still There