The Great And Terrible Oz

 

Music Lyrics of the Day

The devil called down to Georgia

He was looking for some votes to steal

He was in a bind because he was way behind

And he was willing to make a deal 

The Man Behind the Curtain is a Fraud

According to Donald Trump all of the Republican and Democrat Secretaries of State across this great land – all the poll workers, local election boards and local governments have conspired in a massive, coordinated effort to rig the November election. 

Seriously? 

Who is the ringleader? 

What was the source of the fake ballots? 

Who trained the poll workers in this elaborate deception? 

Have the poll workers been sworn to secrecy in this diabolical plot? 

Trump has not only insulted the good and decent people who commit to doing the hard work of democracy at our polling stations – he has insulted the entire system and the intelligence of the American people.  

His hissy fit whining  and fabrications are a perpetuation of the fraud that he is.  Further evidence that the only issue in the election was getting rid of Trump. 

Lest you think anybody here performed a Biden dance yesterday - that's it.  Quite uncomplicated. 

Trump gone.  

End result.  

Period.

I predict that a significant contribution to Donald Trump’s historical legacy will be the fact that he will be the only President in American history whose concession speech will be that the election was stolen from him.  Sadly, he will never understand why so many will point to that as just another example of why he was so unsuited to be president. 

The Great and Terrible Oz is a garden variety fraud. 

 

Can It Get Any Worse?

If you read your history it was in the year AD 38 that the Roman Senate became increasingly rattled by the behavior of Emperor Caligula. By now there was no doubt that the emperor of the civilized world was in fact an unhinged and dangerous madman.  

Confirming their worst fears - Caligula announced the revival of the treason trials; the bloodthirsty trials which had given an air of terror to the latter years of Tiberius' reign. 

And it got worse, and worse, and worse...

Seen on the Web

Heh...

You ever get the impression that science makes certain elected official's head hurt?

King Coal or Humpty Dumpty

At the end of the month of March President Donald Trump made a dramatic display of executive power at the Environmental Protection Agency by signing an executive order to turn-back EPA regulations enacted under President Obama.

“My administration is putting an end to the war on coal,” Trump exclaimed.

This unique focus on coal is both curious and intriguing.  It's not like coal mining is a particularly appealing or desirable job.   The role of coal in producing electricity is shrinking and continues to shrink.   Coal produces maybe 30% of our power - down from 55% in its glory days - and by 2020, it will be exceedingly lucky to maintain a grip on a fourth of the energy generation market.  The relentless march of natural gas and renewable sources of energy are unforgiving.   Horizontal drilling and fracking technologies are safer, gas is more abundant, renewables are growing less expensive and apparently are not going away.  In summation they are cleaner, growing cheaper and they are here to stay.   

Instead of investing money to train coal miners for other jobs and develop new industries for coal country we spend over a billion dollars on black-lung healthcare for the miners.  Admittedly, this blogger would tell you that statement is a cheap shot at miners.  Nevertheless, in less than ten years an additional 13,000 coal mining jobs have been lost.  All the while other industries - newspapers among them - have lost more jobs.  Coal mining and coal burning is dangerous and dirty work, it's destructive to the environment, it's expensive relative to other energy sources and it should be a relic of the 19th and 20th centuries.  It is a dying industry on life support.  

What's so special about coal and coal miners?  

To be certain I can be sympathetic to the miners, their families, communities and employers that are impacted by the decline of coal - but nothing lasts forever.   I have blogged about this painful creative destruction or creative disruption before as products, services and labor continue to be priced according to market-forces of supply-and-demand.  The developments of cutting edge technologies, inexpensive, abundant and clean natural-gas are rendering coal obsolete.   I dunno, perhaps the future technological breakthrough will make coal viable again.  

I would like to ask if the coal miner is now the modern day working class hero.  Or are they the current detritus cast-off as a consequence innovation and technology.  Or are they convenient props for opportunistic politicians?  

Last year a candidate promised job retraining but the miners would tell you there isn't a demand for retraining.  If I had to hazard a guess it is easier to blame immigrants, liberals and others for your problems than it is to adapt and adjust.   

Last year a different candidate promised hope to people whose family livelihood has been coal for multiple generations.   Was this a calculated and cynical move?  

Plenty of communities have transformed themselves into innovative cities.  No surprise if you embrace the challenge.  People there created opportunity, or moved to join it.  West Virginians and Kentuckians could have done the same thing, but they didn't (or haven’t yet). 

It is going to be interesting to watch from the sidelines how this all plays-out…

Quote of the Day

Presidential lying is treasonous. Pointing it out is patriotic.

                                    - Comment found on the web

Sloganeering

On February 23^rd President Donald Trump made it exceedingly clear to US Steel Chief Executive Mario Longhie that Keystone XL had to Buy American:  We put you heavy into the pipeline business because we approved, as you know, the Keystone Pipeline, but they have to buy ... steel made in this country and pipelines made in this country.  

If you were paying attention to the President’s speech to Congress a few days ago You observed and heard this:  New American pipelines be made with American steel.  

Two statements from Trump.  Are they one and the same?  Or has the earth under the pipeline shifted?

Consider this.  Trump’s Executive Order calls for U.S. steel to be used in “all new pipelines, as well as retrofitted, repaired or expanded pipelines”.   Keystone XL (first proposed in 2008) is currently in the process of being constructed and as a consequence we learned today that it does not meet the definition of a new, retrofitted, repaired or expanded pipeline.  It does not count.

Alas, if I had to hazard a guess I’d bet The Base still believes that only good-old, red-blooded, all-American, US steel is going into Keystone XL because they heard Buy American.  And that's what will make America great again.   Correct?  

Nope.   

And the old switcheroo is slicker than snot.  Steve Bannon's fingerprints are all over this.  Nice.  The man is a master propagandist.  You can learn more here.

Why America is Already Great Again

Lest you harbor any last vestige of doubt about our great country's greatness I want to point out something I was reminded of while knocking about a Monoprix in Paris a couple of weeks ago.  Something that is recognized throughout the entire world as irrefutable evidence of America's greatness.

Yup.  Commercially manufactured, enriched, fortified, pre-sliced and wrapped white bread.


America's post World War II manufacturing renaissance with humming factories, baby boom, highway-building, race for the moon and vast economic expansion was accompanied by this ubiquitous household foodstuff that even today persists as a key indicator of an American family's prosperity and American culinary and economic dominance throughout the world. 

I was raised on a steady diet of Wonder Bread.  No whole grain, fancy, hipster, designer loaves for me.  Good old, soft sliced white bread that got a tad gooey after the baloney, American cheese and mayo start to soak-in after sitting for hours in a lunch pail on the shelf at school.  It's no wonder (pun intended) that am a successful and prosperous example of building strong bodies twelve ways.

So, don't let that orange man behind the curtain fool you.  He's a hustler, swindler and a con-man (from Queens).  If he points a tiny finger at you and exhorts his minions about making America great again you just tell him that he's full of hot air.   America is already great again.  

America is already so great that this cultural food icon is copied and sold the world-over. I shit you not.

Yes, even in France.  The land of fresh-baked daily baguettes that are crunchy, chewy divinely delicious along with buttery, heavenly, flaky croissants, hard rolls and brioches.  

There is this: 
  

click on image to enlarge

Commercially manufactured, enriched, fortified, shelf-stable, preservative-infused, pre-sliced and wrapped white bread.  It proudly shouts- American Sandwich on the label too.

Even the French have surrendered - culturally and otherwise - to American greatness and dominance.

I rest my case.

You can learn more about The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread here.  

Be sure to visit Harrys here.