027 – In 2018 and 2020 Democrats had better have 20-20 hindsight (An editorial)

How do you put a silver lining on a load of poop?

That disgusting tax plan that the Republicans jammed through just might be the best thing that they could have done, for this country, and for the Democrats, if the Dems play their cards correctly.

God knows there are enough negative things that they can throw in the Republican’s faces, but the Democrats also must to be able to run on something positive.

How about trying this?  Hmmm.  That tax legislation just gave a $1.5 trillion dollar gift, almost exclusively to the top 1% … or even less.  That means if the Democrats take control and have the ability to rescind that tax cut, they will have $1.5 trillion dollars to use … without having to even raise taxes on 99% of American tax payers.

How about …

  • Pouring a bunch of that $1.5 trillion into infrastructure? Now THAT should really affect jobs for the middle class, and therefore provide much needed wages.  Oh and our infrastructure just happens to badly need it as well.  Repair aging bridges.  Overhaul the ancient software that is still used for air traffic control in our country.  Upgrade the aging power grid … not just here but how about also in Puerto Rico?  All of that is not exactly just “make work” stuff.
    • One thing Democrats must absolutely guarantee is that the contracts for those infrastructure projects will be fairly awarded to the best offers made for them. There can be none of that pork barrel crap that Congress is so fond of awarding – by both Republicans and Democrats.

027 - 2018 and 2020 infrastructure

  • Reinstate the Obamacare insurance requirement – not because they want to take people’s choice away, but because no workable health plan anywhere in the world can be sustainable without requiring healthy people to have at least some insurance. No insurance plan is ever going to be either affordable, or sustainable, if only the sick and elderly have insurance.
  • Reinstate the subsidies which allow insurance companies to provide lower rates for needy recipients, while protecting those subsidies so that they do not just represent freebies for the insurance companies.
  • Reform the prescription drug system. The prices we pay for prescription drugs are insane compared to almost everywhere else in the world.

How about some other non-monetary positives …

  • Once again, put people in charge of government agencies who not only actually have some expertise in the agencies that they lead, but who also are not life long opponents of the agencies that they are chosen to lead! What an Earth shattering concept!

027 - 2918 and 202 - nincompoops

  • Forget that trite Make America Great Again nonsense.  How about make the State Department Great Again … or at the very least make it Respected Again?
  • Trump was big on doing everything he could to undo everything possible that Obama did by using the power of Executive Orders. Well, back at ya Trump.

If Trump does somehow survive to run again in 2020, let’s hope that whomever runs against him does their homework on the type of garbage that Trump pulled against Hillary, particularly in the debates.

If you are a follower of my previous editorials, you may remember editorial # 017 – Back the F*** off, you creep.

https://pearlsnmblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/24/back-the-f-off-you-creep-an-editorial/

As I said at the top of this editorial, hindsight better be 20-20 if not even clearer than that.  The Democratic nominee should be locked and loaded for whatever kind of nonsense Trump tries.  Like when Hillary said that Trump would be a puppet for Putin.  Trump’s totally juvenile response was “I’m not a puppet.  You’re a puppet.  You are.”   Don’t you just wish that Hillary would have stopped dead, looked at him and said something like …

“Excuse me.  Is that the best you’ve got?  That is the kind of thing I would have expected the class bully to say to Chelsea when she was in the third grade.  How about trying to have at least an ounce of respect for the American people, and for the office you supposedly aspire to?”

It’s too late for that to do Hillary any good, but you would like to think that someone like Kirsten Gillebrand or Kamala Harris or whomever rises to the occasion, might have been listening rather closely to those debates.

Both in 2018 and 2020, when the disasterous tax legislation comes up, and Republicans repeat those baldface lies about how the plan is benefiting the lower and middle class – certainly not the wealthy, how about throwing Trump’s own words right back at them?  Within days after signing the tax legislation into law, Trump told some of his friends at a Mar-a-Lago dinner that “You all just got a lot richer.”

027 - 2018 and 2020 you all just got a lot richer

That should make a great ad in any Congressional race.  First, show one of the many clips of Trump saying how this was a big, beautiful tax cut for the middle class, that it was certainly not going to benefit him personally, and that his rich friends were not going to be happy with him.  Then seamlessly juxtapose that with his “You all just got a lot richer” comment.  Trump should be the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to the 2018 and the 2020 Congressional elections.

Just as long as the Democrats avoid doing what my favorite comedian Louis Black once said about the Republicans who were trying to impeach Bill Clinton.  “The Republicans got Clinton firmly in their sights, pointed the gun at him, and then turned the gun around and “Blam” – they shot themselves in the face.”

Let’s hope the Democrats have learned at least a few lessons.

 

The Stone Circles of England – 2001 & 2002

 When Visited

  • 2001 and 2002

As one of my last official acts as the global Information Technology Manager for Sensient Technologies, based in Milwaukee Wisconsin, I travelled to Great Britain.  I was there first in November and December of 2001, to visit our Sensient locations in England.  I then travelled back to Great Britain from January to May of 2002 when I lived in Wales, near the town of Felinfach.  I monitored the transition of Sensient’s primary European production facility to the company’s new, manufacturing software.

While living and working in both England and Wales, one of the things I wanted to do was to track down as many of the famous stone circles around England as I could find.  Most everyone is aware of the most famous of these – Stonehenge – and I definitely visited there.  However, I was also able to track down a number of others, many of which were located in rather remote areas of the English countryside.

Regarding Stonehenge, when I was there, you were still able to walk right up to, and even among the stones.  I don’t believe that you are allowed to do that any longer.  The following picture will give you a little bit better perspective on the size of the individual stones – something that indeed makes you wonder how on Earth people in the time before Christ were able to accomplish such a feat.

Stone Circles - people around Stonehenge

It is believed that perhaps 4,000 or more stone circles, of varying sizes, were originally constructed in what is now known as Great Britain (the British Isles) and also in the part of northwestern Europe once known as Brittany.  Perhaps only 1,300 of them remain to some degree today, with the others having been destroyed.

The following You Tube video (6:12) shows a rather interesting look at five of the more interesting stone circles in England, other than Stonehenge.  It utilizes Google Earth to clearly identify the locations and provides some good bird’s eye views of the circles.  Unfortunately, only one of the five is one that I visited personally – Avebury – but that one is pretty impressive especially for the huge area that it surrounds.

One of my life bucket list items is to return to Scotland and seek out Loch Ness.  I can always hold out the hope of seeing “Nessie”, hopefully with camera in hand.  🙂   But while in Scotland, I would/will also be interested in tracking down some of the famous stone circles that still exist there as well.

Here is a You Tube video (2:12) that shows some of Scotland’s stone circles …

I’ll end this post with one of my favorite pictures taken during my stone circle searches.  I took this picture while searching for the Nine Ladies Stone Circles.  It turned out to be one of the most remote that I personally found.  I parked my car and had to walk about a mile to the site, first via a trail and then over unmarked land.  As I left the car, the morning fog still lingered and the early morning sun shone eerily through the fog as I walked – perfect, I thought at the time, for what I was seeking.

Stone Circles - morning mist

Picture Locations on the Internet – Photobucket.com

Pictures from the Stone Circles of England …

http://s937.photobucket.com/user/rwkoehler/slideshow/Great%20Britain/England/The%20Stone%20Circles%20of%20England?sort=2 

Tips when Using Photobucket

  • The previous links will take you directly to a slideshow of pictures and collages, related to the locations, which reside on the internet on the Photobucket.com website.
  • Once the slideshow begins, the display begins showing slides at a Medium speed.
    • Slow displays each slide for 10 seconds
    • Medium displays each slide for 6 seconds
    • Fast displays each slide for 3 seconds
  • To change the display speed, click on the word SlowMedium or Fast at the bottom right of the Photobucket screen.
  • To non-display the bottom toolbar, and thereby maximize the picture on your screen, click on the  Photobucket icon    icon at the bottom right of the Photobucket screen.
  • To display, or to redisplay a specific slide, you may click on the thumbnail at the bottom of the Photobucket screen.
  • To Pause the display at a specific picture, click on the   Photobucket Pause Button    icon at the lower left of the Photobucket screen.

 

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