😦 Heating bill will be higher in May than April
🙂 Miss Bosley keeps me warm in chilly weather
🙂 We get to watch Hillary and Donald rip each other apart. A really good show!
🙂 Son has summer employment.
😦 Brother still looking for his job.
🙂 Art can finally have his procedure.
🙂 God is always good.
We’re going to be marveling, cringing, sometimes cheering, sometimes defending, but above all reflecting on Trump nonstop between now and November, and I’ll probably change my mind about him or aspects of him more than once along the way. … Here are five propositions that are intended for serious reflection going forward:
* Divided parties invariably lose presidential elections. …
* To the extent that Trump represents the rejection of the political establishment, the GOP is just getting out ahead of Democrats. …
* Trump and Sanders both expose the obsolescence of policy wonks and policy wonkery.
* Keep your eye on the Journal of American Greatness, which is making the best intellectual and political case for Trump. They do this with wit and style, such as this satire of a Tom Friedman column, but also with the lacerating post “Everything Was Awesome” that nails Republican complacency with an ironic sledgehammer.
* Is it possible to suggest that everyone keep calm? I don’t mean going full Kevin Bacon, but it is startling how severely the divisions over Trump are causing complete ruptures in personal relations. …
__________________________
I have respected Paul Ryan ever since he proposed real market reforms to Medicare – the program which more than any other, threatens to bankrupt our nation. He also had the courage to propose a detailed conservative budget. For these acts he was roundly attacked by liberals including Democrats and the Trumpster Newt Gingrich.
Again, Ryan is showing courage. The easy move would have been to give a tepid endorsement to Trump and then never mention the lunatic’s name or be seen with him again while trying to protect Republican seats in Congress. However, Ryan has again shown leadership. My guess is that he will seek to get Trump to make some level of commitment to the Constitution, including freedom of the press and limits on executive power, despite Trump’s ignorance of and hostility to such concepts.
Cats already rule the world. Why would one run for President? 😀 Besides, the President has to be 35 years old in human years, and I doubt any these animals are that old.
I see Tess as attorney general — or perhaps just as the supreme border control agent. As a border collie, she’s an enforcer at heart, always working to keep everyone in place so they do not stray beyond their assigned boundaries.
Peter, If the Supreme Court will force every state to allow men to marry men, maybe we can persuade it to adjust the age requirement to “cat years”.
Here is Kevin Williamson’s latest. As he notes, the most important point when considering Trump is that the man is completely unfit to hold any public office.
Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama’s popularity is growing just in time for him to wage the final campaign of his political life. …
…Though Obama yet hasn’t formally endorsed Clinton, who remains in a primary race against Bernie Sanders, he was eager Friday to take on Trump and preview his arguments for the fall.
“We are in serious times and this is a really serious job,” Obama said in his first news conference since Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee this week. “This is not entertainment. This is not a reality show. This is a contest for the presidency of the United States.” …
____________________________
… Those are some of the most potent words in the state’s vocabulary: Texas-made. In a cupboard in our home here, we had a bottle of 1835, a bourbon bottled in Texas and named for the year of the first battle for Texas independence. My crunchy peanut butter is made with Texas-grown peanuts. My salsa of choice is Native Texan (“Born in Texas, Never Leavin’ Texas”). I am not sure where our minivan was made, but as I idle at red lights I know the heritage of the Toyota Tundra in front of me. The stickers on the pickup trucks, built in San Antonio, declare: “Born in Texas, Built by Texans.” …
… I was born and raised in Central California, and I moved to Houston from Brooklyn in June 2011 to cover Texas for The New York Times. I live here with my wife, my 7-year-old son and my 3-year-old daughter, who keeps a pair of pink cowboy boots outside on the porch or inside by the front door. I have covered stories in the South, the Midwest and other parts of the country. People in those places identified with their political party, their job, their cause, their sexual orientation, their city, their race. Almost no one identified with their state the way Texans do.
Who are these people, these Texans? What do they tell us about America? What to make of a state that is so focused on itself? I wrestle with these questions all the time. …
I’m becoming a little bit Texan. The historian T. R. Fehrenbach once wrote that Texas “shaped those who lived upon it more than they changed it.”
You don’t just move to Texas. It moves into you. …
_______________________________
I really like the story of the Death Row inmate praising Texas right before we executed him. Those kind of stories keep the wrong kind of Yankees from moving down here.
Tychicus, Thanks for pointing me to the comments to the Texas article. They were hilarious. Unfortunately, I found this one:
“This article perfectly captures the initial wide-eyed disbelief and bit of disgust one feels upon moving to Texas, because the caricatures and stereotypes are less than the reality! Cowboys and guns and flags and pickup trucks are everywhere — it’s all true!
Then comes the slow and surprising conversion that happens over the course of a few years. The new settler realizes — despite every effort to resist the brainwashing — he/she has fallen deeply in love with Texas: the wide open spaces, the friendly people, the sense of optimism along with all of the bizarre quirks and contradictions.
I grew up a yankee and have lived all over the country. I deplore the hard right politics of this state. Yet I’ve never lived anywhere where the vast majority of people are happy and friendly no matter what their circumstances. No kidding. And there is something to be said for taking pride in the state you live. Sounds weird for this progressive reader to say it. But after ten years living here I consider myself and my family to be Texans, and we wouldn’t live anywhere else! :)”
This is why we need a wall on our Northern and Eastern borders. If we keep attracting Yankee liberals like that one, I’m going to have to move to Chile or Singapore.
We’re going to hear a lot of this kind of thing in the months to come.
__________________________________
Rep. Charlie Rangel offered a scathing assessment of the Republican coalition on Saturday morning, saying Donald Trump had “pulled the sheets off” a party that has attracted those who “hate immigrants and minorities” and “don’t like women.”
Rangel’s appraisal came as he described the shifting terrain of partisan politics in the twentieth century, during remarks at a weekly rally hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton in Harlem.
“All of a sudden, heirs of slaves are looking at the Democratic Party and they moved over to the Democratic Party,” said Rangel. “But when they moved to the Democratic Party, they had to get in bed with these crackers, Dixie-people, part of the slaveholders — that was a bad mix.
“And then along comes Dr. Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson, and the children of slaves get the right to vote,” he continued. “And the crackers look and see they can’t possibly win and they run and they join the Republican Party. Now you think we have problems.” …
_____________________________________
Donna, Native Texans do not view insults from readers of the New York Times as slights from family members. Rather, we view them as David did the taunts of Goliath: Rants from infidels we would like to defeat or, at a minimum, be separated from. I’m coming around to the idea that loony Trump may just create the type of collapse and chaos that would allow us to make our escape.
Perhaps the president is positioning himself to be available for a third term “in an emergency,” should the Democratic candidate not be able to serve owing to . . . . legal issues?
Wandering Views 
😦 Heating bill will be higher in May than April
🙂 Miss Bosley keeps me warm in chilly weather
🙂 We get to watch Hillary and Donald rip each other apart. A really good show!
🙂 Son has summer employment.
😦 Brother still looking for his job.
🙂 Art can finally have his procedure.
🙂 God is always good.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Janice, I like your post, but it is funny that you’ve mixed up all the threads
LikeLiked by 2 people
I like it that Bosley is on the political thread.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bosley for president
LikeLiked by 1 person
Being a cat, Bosley would, of course, be a Libertarian.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Donna just endorsed a Libertarian!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Will wonders never cease? 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Now Bosley needs a running mate.
Annie Oakley!
Although cats might have other ideas — would they really want to share a ticket? 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
Cats don’t play well together. That would be way too much drama.
Cowboy is available. He’s a good, traditional Republican/conservative, so that might balance the ticket nicely.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is the most fun political thread we’ve had in months.
Does Bosley have a campaign fund?
She could make a better speech than either The Donald or Hillary.
LikeLiked by 3 people
But seriously, folks …
From Steven Hayward at power line —
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/05/five-propositions-about-trump.php
__________________________
We’re going to be marveling, cringing, sometimes cheering, sometimes defending, but above all reflecting on Trump nonstop between now and November, and I’ll probably change my mind about him or aspects of him more than once along the way. … Here are five propositions that are intended for serious reflection going forward:
* Divided parties invariably lose presidential elections. …
* To the extent that Trump represents the rejection of the political establishment, the GOP is just getting out ahead of Democrats. …
* Trump and Sanders both expose the obsolescence of policy wonks and policy wonkery.
* Keep your eye on the Journal of American Greatness, which is making the best intellectual and political case for Trump. They do this with wit and style, such as this satire of a Tom Friedman column, but also with the lacerating post “Everything Was Awesome” that nails Republican complacency with an ironic sledgehammer.
* Is it possible to suggest that everyone keep calm? I don’t mean going full Kevin Bacon, but it is startling how severely the divisions over Trump are causing complete ruptures in personal relations. …
__________________________
LikeLike
So Cowboy has accepted the offer to run with Bosley.
He’s so sweet and mellow. He’ll even let Bosley rub up against him now and again.
Of course it’s understood that key administration/court appointments will go to Tess, Misten, Mouse and Annie Oakley.
Let’s roll.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, and Heidi! Of course!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have respected Paul Ryan ever since he proposed real market reforms to Medicare – the program which more than any other, threatens to bankrupt our nation. He also had the courage to propose a detailed conservative budget. For these acts he was roundly attacked by liberals including Democrats and the Trumpster Newt Gingrich.
Again, Ryan is showing courage. The easy move would have been to give a tepid endorsement to Trump and then never mention the lunatic’s name or be seen with him again while trying to protect Republican seats in Congress. However, Ryan has again shown leadership. My guess is that he will seek to get Trump to make some level of commitment to the Constitution, including freedom of the press and limits on executive power, despite Trump’s ignorance of and hostility to such concepts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You folks should have elected me when you had a chance.
I suspected this was going to happen.
It only gets worse from here.
😥
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thursday’s meeting between Ryan & Trump should be interesting. And maybe telling.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Heidi is honored to be asked to serve in the Bosley-Cowboy administration. Treats are involved, right?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh absolutely. They rule.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I knew I forgot someone.
Mr. Pet Rock.
LikeLiked by 1 person
He’ll crush all opponents. Secretary of Defense?
You can have my cat, Kali. She’ll just yowl and whine– press secretary? She’s feral Hawai’ian which must fit some obscure constituency.
LikeLiked by 3 people
We’re all set!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pets and politics apparently go together.
Will there be any jellicle cats in the cabinet?
What’s a jellicle cat? What’s a jellicle cat?
😀
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Political cats do get mentioned in that song, you know. Or was it apolitical? 😉
LikeLike
Trump doesn’t want us. He wants to go after Bernie supporters.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/279135-trump-i-dont-think-gop-has-to-be-unified
If Ryan holds firm, maybe Trump will pick Bernie as his VP. This would probably help Hillary, but it could also help your pets.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cats already rule the world. Why would one run for President? 😀 Besides, the President has to be 35 years old in human years, and I doubt any these animals are that old.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I see Tess as attorney general — or perhaps just as the supreme border control agent. As a border collie, she’s an enforcer at heart, always working to keep everyone in place so they do not stray beyond their assigned boundaries.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Peter, If the Supreme Court will force every state to allow men to marry men, maybe we can persuade it to adjust the age requirement to “cat years”.
Here is Kevin Williamson’s latest. As he notes, the most important point when considering Trump is that the man is completely unfit to hold any public office.
http://www.follownews.com/this-election-is-not-an-ab-test-181nt
LikeLike
Meanwhile, the president is gearing up to be all in on this upcoming campaign.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/07/politics/obama-hillary-clinton-last-campaign/index.html
___________________________
Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama’s popularity is growing just in time for him to wage the final campaign of his political life. …
…Though Obama yet hasn’t formally endorsed Clinton, who remains in a primary race against Bernie Sanders, he was eager Friday to take on Trump and preview his arguments for the fall.
“We are in serious times and this is a really serious job,” Obama said in his first news conference since Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee this week. “This is not entertainment. This is not a reality show. This is a contest for the presidency of the United States.” …
____________________________
LikeLike
For Ricky.
____________________________
… Those are some of the most potent words in the state’s vocabulary: Texas-made. In a cupboard in our home here, we had a bottle of 1835, a bourbon bottled in Texas and named for the year of the first battle for Texas independence. My crunchy peanut butter is made with Texas-grown peanuts. My salsa of choice is Native Texan (“Born in Texas, Never Leavin’ Texas”). I am not sure where our minivan was made, but as I idle at red lights I know the heritage of the Toyota Tundra in front of me. The stickers on the pickup trucks, built in San Antonio, declare: “Born in Texas, Built by Texans.” …
… I was born and raised in Central California, and I moved to Houston from Brooklyn in June 2011 to cover Texas for The New York Times. I live here with my wife, my 7-year-old son and my 3-year-old daughter, who keeps a pair of pink cowboy boots outside on the porch or inside by the front door. I have covered stories in the South, the Midwest and other parts of the country. People in those places identified with their political party, their job, their cause, their sexual orientation, their city, their race. Almost no one identified with their state the way Texans do.
Who are these people, these Texans? What do they tell us about America? What to make of a state that is so focused on itself? I wrestle with these questions all the time. …
I’m becoming a little bit Texan. The historian T. R. Fehrenbach once wrote that Texas “shaped those who lived upon it more than they changed it.”
You don’t just move to Texas. It moves into you. …
_______________________________
LikeLiked by 2 people
I really like the story of the Death Row inmate praising Texas right before we executed him. Those kind of stories keep the wrong kind of Yankees from moving down here.
LikeLike
The article doesn’t present a very balanced view of Texas, and the NYT readers’ comments are almost unbearable.
LikeLike
The thing about the Pet Rock is he will be here when all the other critters are gone.
😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, he’ll stand to inherit the whole kit & caboodle then
LikeLike
Tychicus, Thanks for pointing me to the comments to the Texas article. They were hilarious. Unfortunately, I found this one:
“This article perfectly captures the initial wide-eyed disbelief and bit of disgust one feels upon moving to Texas, because the caricatures and stereotypes are less than the reality! Cowboys and guns and flags and pickup trucks are everywhere — it’s all true!
Then comes the slow and surprising conversion that happens over the course of a few years. The new settler realizes — despite every effort to resist the brainwashing — he/she has fallen deeply in love with Texas: the wide open spaces, the friendly people, the sense of optimism along with all of the bizarre quirks and contradictions.
I grew up a yankee and have lived all over the country. I deplore the hard right politics of this state. Yet I’ve never lived anywhere where the vast majority of people are happy and friendly no matter what their circumstances. No kidding. And there is something to be said for taking pride in the state you live. Sounds weird for this progressive reader to say it. But after ten years living here I consider myself and my family to be Texans, and we wouldn’t live anywhere else! :)”
This is why we need a wall on our Northern and Eastern borders. If we keep attracting Yankee liberals like that one, I’m going to have to move to Chile or Singapore.
LikeLike
I’m no Texan — I’m a California w/Iowa parental roots — but I bristle at the bigotry against Texas that I hear from many liberals. 😦
Meanwhile, here we go:
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2016/05/8598645/rangel-trump-has-pulled-sheets-republican-party
We’re going to hear a lot of this kind of thing in the months to come.
__________________________________
Rep. Charlie Rangel offered a scathing assessment of the Republican coalition on Saturday morning, saying Donald Trump had “pulled the sheets off” a party that has attracted those who “hate immigrants and minorities” and “don’t like women.”
Rangel’s appraisal came as he described the shifting terrain of partisan politics in the twentieth century, during remarks at a weekly rally hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton in Harlem.
“All of a sudden, heirs of slaves are looking at the Democratic Party and they moved over to the Democratic Party,” said Rangel. “But when they moved to the Democratic Party, they had to get in bed with these crackers, Dixie-people, part of the slaveholders — that was a bad mix.
“And then along comes Dr. Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson, and the children of slaves get the right to vote,” he continued. “And the crackers look and see they can’t possibly win and they run and they join the Republican Party. Now you think we have problems.” …
_____________________________________
LikeLike
Donna, Native Texans do not view insults from readers of the New York Times as slights from family members. Rather, we view them as David did the taunts of Goliath: Rants from infidels we would like to defeat or, at a minimum, be separated from. I’m coming around to the idea that loony Trump may just create the type of collapse and chaos that would allow us to make our escape.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha – Ricky et al on the run
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps the president is positioning himself to be available for a third term “in an emergency,” should the Democratic candidate not be able to serve owing to . . . . legal issues?
LikeLike