TOO COOL for SCHOOL…

T-Ball.

Trophies for ALL participants.

Everyone will get 5 minutes.

NO one has to grow up!

Please, stop the madness…

Did I ever tell you that I walked to school – 4 1/2 miles each direction – in continuous blizzards from Halloween to Opening Day?

WE’RE NOW on to NORMANDY FENCES

Well, Gang, it looks like everything is on track to end in a harmonious fashion…by Friday, February 15th…

NOW…make it a habit!

Missin’ Mitch is beginning to show some onions!

In a stinging bipartisan rebuke to Trump’s foreign policy, the Senate has voted overwhelmingly this afternoon to advance legislation drafted by the Senate majority leader to express strong opposition to the president’s withdrawal of US military forces from Syria and Afghanistan.

The vote was the second time in two months that a Republican-led Senate had rebuked Trump on foreign policy.

The vote, written by Senator McConnell (R-KY) and backed by virtually every Senate Republican, will be added to a broader bipartisan Middle East policy bill expected to easily pass the Senate next week.

NOTHING brings more unity and bipartisanship in the Senate than “campaign contributions” from war profiteers.

LET’S HEAR from BROTHER COLBERT

…3,2,1…

DONNIE is OPEN for BUSINESS…?

NO one has the slightest clue.

NOT even our current president!

A high-level trade delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He – the economic czar of that country – has proposed to the US that Trump meet with Xi in the tropical Chinese city of Hainan after his planned summit with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, in late February, the Wall Street Journal is reporting in the last 45 minutes.

Maybe it’s just me, I can’t imagine trying to get The Weave ready for such a double-header, under the best of conditions.

Imagine if, God forbid, there’s another government shutdown declared on Friday, February 15th?!!??!?

In a tweet earlier this morning, Trump indicated he is open to a new meeting with Xi, “No final deal will be made until my friend President Xi, and I, meet in the near future to discuss and agree on some of the long standing and more difficult points.”

Trump has asserted that China wants to make a deal so that the United States does NOT increase tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports on March 2nd.

Carrot Top‘s greasy day-minder could get filled up very, very quickly.

The case against Chinese telecom giant Huawei may yet be the biggest stumbling block, within the fine print of these talks.

The international markets are on Code Red…

 

 

 

UPGRADING AMERICA

One-hundred years ago today, one of my heroes was born, in the red-clay community Cairo, Georgia.

His name was Jack Roosevelt Robinson, to most people “Jackie.” 

The grandson of slaves would dramatically change our culture, and 20th century society forever.

As we ALL know that change has NOT always been for the good.

What Jackie Robinson did for the issue of RACE in America, he gave it dignity.

His presence broke down century-old barriers!

Since April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson made his major-league debut with the then Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the color barrier in Major league Baseball, his presence has hovered over the game.

Jackie visibly pushed open closed doors with opportunities for black people in ALL businesses.

For me, whether society was ready for it, or NOT, Jackie raised the consciousness of Americans.

In his first year with the Dodgers, as I’ve previously mentioned before in an earlier posting, my Uncle Jim and I drove down to Boston from Maine, during the summer of my fourth birthday, to see Jackie play against the Braves [hadn’t moved to Milwaukee yet].

As historic as that trip was meant to be, family history states that I spent the better part of the game sleeping – off and on – and eating hot dogs, eating popcorn and downing Pepsi.

I hadn’t developed my sea-legs yet…

What began for everyone in 1947 was a decade of Jackie Robinson on the field, running the bases pigeon-toed, taking out infielders with a hard slide, jawing at umpires, and bringing his competitive fire to the majors.

Because of Jackie, Americans were lifted up from their bigotry [certainly NOT in every sector of our society], and were able to appreciate a gifted athlete, a driven intelligent human being, and a decent man excelling where NO player of color had been allowed since the 19th century.

In one of the most debated calls in the history of professional baseball…

Yogi was wrong…

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was safe, in more ways than recorded history will ever be able to document!!!

THE BEST ACTOR in the NFL

The vault is NEVER open for business…

I.D., please…

Donald John Trump’s company plans to institute E-Verify, a federal program that allows employers to check whether new hires are legally eligible to work in the United States, in every one of its golf clubs, hotels and resorts, following reporting by the Washington Post that its club in Westchester County, NY, employed undocumented immigrants for years.

I’m shocked…

Our 45th president being caught as a bloody hypocrite?

NO, NO, he told us during the campaign his company/organization utilized the E-verify system, and such individuals would NEVER see the light of day on his properties.

Phony papers?

NBC addressed it…

And, listen, what’s really sad about this mess, Grandma Clinton and CNN warned us ALL [of course, this was ‘red meat’ for the Deplorables!] during the ’16 campaign…

Trump, once again, proving he’s the “master of the backfill” at the expense of good, loyal, hard-working employees.

Pretending he’s the cure, NOT the symptom!

…And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.

 

 

JEROME, DO YOU HAVE a COMMENT?

The central bank will release a new statement at 2 pm ET, and officials aren’t releasing new economic projections. The press conference begins at 2:30 pm.

The Federal Reserve is set to hold interest rates steady today and reaffirm it is likely to leave them unchanged for a while.

Investors will watch closely how Fed Chairman Jerome Powell characterizes the outlook for BOTH interest rates and the central bank’s shrinking asset portfolio in his post-meeting news conference.

The Fed hiked borrowing costs four times in 2018.

Powell has been meeting with lawmakers at a faster clip than his two predecessors, a push that appears to be earning him allies as he navigates tricky monetary policy waters and vocal White House criticism, from the bankruptcy expert now living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Trump administration’s rosy view of the economy is increasingly diverging ! from a  more cautious outlook from other prognosticators, including economists at the Federal Reserve, and elsewhere, who are warning that growth is slowing, in part because of the president’s own policies.

Economists outside the administration are projecting that growth will slow this year, as the global economy struggles under the weight of a trade war, a slowdown in China and the waning stimulus from BOTH Trump’s signature tax cuts and additional government spending.

And, lest anyone should forget…Carrot Top‘s threat of another government shutdown!

I don’t know about you folks, but I’m exhausted from winning, and winning, and winning…

Expertise in economic matters?

Trump?

Once I’ve finished reviewing his personal and family income tax returns and business records, I’ll be able to give you a more specific answer.

Oh, that’s right, they’re still under audit…

Head for the lifeboats! 

SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES

They were a collective chorus.

Yesterday, Donald John Trump’s own intelligence chiefs, led by Dan Coats, gave Congress a radically different assessment of international threats facing the United States from those of the 45th president.

They warned about renewed Russian efforts to interfere in American elections, predicted that North Korea would NEVER agree to give up its nuclear weapons [I guess they don’t give much credence to the crap about “a special relationship?“] and made clear that the Islamic State is still plotting attacks around the world.

And, get this factoid, they made NO mention !!!!!!!!!!! of Cadet Bone Spurs’ top security priority of building a wall along the southern border.

Elections really do have consequences!

The growing discontent among Republican national security hawks was most evident also yesterday when, shockingly, Senator Missin’ Mitch McConnell , the Majority Leader and perhaps Trump’s most important partner in Congress, effectively rebuked the president by introducing a measure denouncing “a precipitous withdrawal” of American troops from Syria and Afghanistan.

Onions do grow in the Blue Grass state…

Maybe, just maybe, after yesterday’s hearing by our intelligence agency heads presenting our greatest security threats, it’s suddenly dawned on the Senate how much this president represents our own clear and present danger…?

With ALL that being said, and in spite of growing evidence that Trump’s overly emotional reactions to world events create situations which constitute a threat to our national security, my fear is Missin’ Mitch and most of the GOP will continue to support Trump – lock, stock and barrel.

The Republicans happily welcomed ignorance into their neighborhood(s): since late 2008, moronic tea partiers; pinky-fingered, ring-wearing evangelicals; and bigoted, illiterate communes, which ALL have gone on to become the main sources of inspiration for the GOP) joyously were carted into the fold, and now the party is, literally, controlled by them.

The GOP has NO spine and has lost its soul!!!