Those Damned Lefties are to Blame!

Those radical leftists have harmed our nation irretrievably.  They, through the Democratic Party, passed laws that have given those poor stupid working class Americans benefits that have clearly harmed America in ways that cannot be appreciated.  With the exception of President George W. Bush’s Medicare Modernization Act all those wild eyed commies are to blame for those legislative acts that have obviously destroyed this great country.

I did the research to learn of the laws they passed.

Under President Franklin Roosevelt.

  1. Social Security Administration. That is the law that  created

-Old age insurance for retirees 65 or older and their spouses

-Unemployment compensation funded by a tax on employers

-Aid to families with dependent children and the disabled

  1. The Fair Labor Standards Act. That is the law that established a minimum hourly wage and maximum number of hours on a work week and set rules for the employment of those under the age of 18.
  2. Established the National Labor Relations Board to hear testimony about unfair practices.
  3. Created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)to provide insured loans for home buyers
  4. Created the Securities and Exchange Commission to supervise the stock market.
  5. Created the Food Drug and Cosmetics Act (FDC) that requires manufacturers to provide the ingredients of their products.
  6. Created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) which protects bank deposits.

Under President Harry Truman segregation in armed forces was banned.  Truman was the first president to propose that all Americans have health insurance.

Under President Lyndon Johnson three law were passed.

  1. Civil Rights Act of 1964
  2. 1965 Voting Rights Act
  3. Medicare and Medicaid amended to the Social Security Act on July 30, 1965.

In December 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the Medicare Modernization Act, which added outpatient prescription drug benefits to Medicare.

Under President Barack Obama.

  1. The Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act (EPA) prohibits sex-based wage discrimination between men and women in the same establishment who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility under similar working conditions
  2. The Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) providing health care for most American at affordable prices.

What do you suppose those lefties will do next?  Are they likely to provide low cost college educations? Or even worse they might provide real re-training programs for those who have lost their jobs as the result of automation?

Damn those lefties.  They keep trying to help their neighbors.

The Drama King brings more excitement to Cable News

Donald Trump’s TV show, The Apprentice, was big hit. Today he tried to reignite the excitement as he had television cameras in the oval office as he verbally spared with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer. His supposed purpose was to obtain their support for a border wall with Mexico. He knew they would say no but his real purpose was obvious to me. He wanted all of his supporters to know that he is doing everything in his power to obtain the $5 billion in 2019. He told the world he would shut down the government to get his way. He actually said he was “proud to shut down the government for border security” telling Schumer you can blame me for the shutdown. “I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down — I’m not going to blame you for it.”

The next step in this soap opera will be the days before the shutdown date, December 21. We can all expect more drama starting December 20 and beyond.

An interesting feature of the show was Vice President Mike Pence who said not on word during the entire program. He sat there like a statue.

Where is the great negotiator in this spectacle? He is nowhere to be found. Sadly we will be burdened with this president for two more years.

‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’

The me too movement has gone too far!

The Me Too movement, with many local and international alternative names, is a movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault. #MeToo spread virally in October 2017 as a hashtag on social media in an attempt to demonstrate the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace.

So what does the song ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ have to do with the campaign against sexual harassment?  The Me Too movement has decided that they have the right to police everyone’s words.

Songs and movies were written for fun and entertainment.  So the word baby has a sexual connotation. “Guys and Dolls” will have to be banned.  Burt Bacharach’s – “Wives And Lovers” is definitely not acceptable.  No one was ever harmed by those songs or movies.

There should be a rebellion by men against those that want to destroy fun.

Let’s ban “Baby it’s cold Outside”—but allow the rap songs on 24/7 that glorify rape,sex and total disrespect for all women—where is the outcry against rap??

I hope readers of this blog are willing to say “enough.”

The difference between America’s aristocracy and British Royalty

There is no difference.  We all just viewed a week long burial ceremony for a past president of the United States.  Many of us, especially the media, treated George H.W. Bush like royalty.  It should be important to note that the founding fathers of America abhorred the royalty of Great Britain. Terms like “your excellency” and “your highness” were specifically rejected by congress as words to be used in addressing the president of the United States.  The title of “Mr. President” was decided to be sufficient. 

Fareed Zakaria wrote an interesting opinion piece in the Washington Post  about the things we all can learn from the WASP class that has managed the United States from its founding.  In that article he pointed out that “the old WASP aristocracy did have a sense of modesty, humility and public-spiritedness that seems largely absent in today’s elite.”

For those of you not familiar with the term WASP. It is an abbreviation for White Anglo Saxon Protestant.

My answer is that in public America’s aristocracy (meaning the rich and powerful) takes the positon that they know what is the best for the rest of us mere mortals.  Absence of that earlier more modest behavior does not make them royalty.

Zakaria did not grow up in the United States and is obviously blind to the fact that America’s aristocracy promised change for over 200 years but nothing changed. The rich stayed rich and the poor stayed poor. Non-white Americans continuously face discrimination as they have throughout the country’s history.  That has not changed with the Trump presidency.  The only thing that has changed is the names and faces.

The Bush family was and is still part of that WASP culture and so are the Clintons, the Bidens, the Newsoms (California’s next governor), the Garcettis (mayor of Los Angeles) and almost everyone else in leadership you can name.

Stupidly we, the proletariat, keep sending the same people to Washington and expecting a new outcome. Hillary Clinton seemed to think that just running for president would give her the job.  Donald Trump simply saw the opportunity to convince voters that he would lead America to a new place.

Trump’s style has continued to convince Americans that their lives will be better under his leadership. He is just an outsider but is also among the rich that have no real concern for American lives or America’s place in the world. Trump is a WASP from a wealthy family who has done a better selling job of his brand of “he will be helping the rest of us.”

Trump odd man out as presidents assemble for Bush funeral

This is sad!

 

Associated Press

>WASHINGTON — There was no mistaking the odd man out.

Wednesday’s funeral service for former President George H.W. Bush served as a rare reunion of the remaining members of the presidents club, but the front-row banter among Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and their spouses came to an uneasy end when President Donald Trump and wife Melania arrived.

The encounter was a real-time illustration of the uneasy ties between the current occupant of the White House and his predecessors, suggesting Trump as a member-in-name-only of the Oval Office fraternity. While the funeral ceremony itself was a warm celebration of the late president, the relationships between the surviving presidents are considerably cooler.

Trump gave the two Obamas a handshake before taking his seat in Washington’s National Cathedral without greeting the others. Hillary Clinton nodded at Melania Trump but then stared straight ahead.

Videos of the funeral show a very uncomfortable Donald Trump.

President George H.W. Bush dead at 94

This posting probably won’t win me a lot of friends but it is my opinion.

Born into privilege and a tradition of service, Bush was a son of a senator, celebrated World War II combat pilot, student athlete, Texas oilman, Republican congressman, national party chairman, pioneering diplomat and head of the CIA. After his own 1980 presidential campaign came up short, he served two terms as Ronald Reagan’s vice president before reaching the pinnacle of political power by winning the 1988 presidential election. His winning the presidency was the result of a nasty campaign against Michael Dukakis that implied Dukakis was sympathetic to criminals (Willy Horton was released from prison and committed a killing while on weekend furlough). His lack of empathy for the unemployed during his run for a second term resulted in his loss to Bill Clinton.

During his presidency, Bush skillfully handled foreign affairs during a tumultuous time for the nation. Just months into his first term, he responded to the dissolve of the Soviet Union and oversaw the U.S. military’s removal of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega from power. Not long after, Bush responded to then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait (August 1990), creating a national coalition and leading a military strike to drive Hussein out of the oil-rich country. Bush’s handling of the invasion in Kuwait is largely viewed as his greatest presidential success.

He will not go down in history as a great president for two primary reasons. His promise “No new taxes” was not kept and at the end of his term in office the economy was in tatters.

Do You Need a Digital SLR?

The holiday season is a popular time to buy a new camera. Do you really need a digital single lens reflex camera?

Consumer Reports (CR) is not a photography specialist organization. They are however a valuable source of worthwhile recommendations for everything from cars to washing machines to cameras. They have been testing cameras for decades.

Their 2019 Buying Guide offers this wise advise.

“If you don’t intend to change the lens on your camera, consider an advanced point-and-shoot, which has a fixed lens. Some models have large image sensors with excellent optics and lot of features.”

My old Panasonic DMC-FZ200 is a camera that does not have interchangeable lens option. It does have a fixed zoom lens that is adjustable from 25 millimeters to 600 millimeters. The camera was Panasonic’s most expensive “bridge” unit in 2012 and provides all the features of SLRs. The camera weighs 588 grams (1.3 pounds).  The camera provides all modes and sport speed options.  A remarkable feature is f2.8 aperture at all speeds.
• Program
• Aperture priority
• Shutter priority
• Manual

12 FPS for sports photography and a variety of scene options including panorama that provides great photo from the Empire State Building or views from a cruise ship.

In addition I do not have to carry a bag holding additional lenses.

The latest version is the FZ1000’s with a 1″-type sensor that is around 4 times larger than those featured in most conventional superzooms, which allows for better high image quality and low light photography. The camera weighs 1.83 pounds (831 grams)

There are at least three options to the FZ1000. Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-RX10, Nikon P1000, Canon SX70.

The last teacher I had on photography, offering a class at a community college this year, contends that high price cameras do not result in better photos. The adjustments to your camera (aperture, shutter speed, and focus is what makes the difference in those award winning shots.  I agree with her.