Is it just me or are a lot of things going down the chute at the same time? I am a pretty optimistic person but our world or at least our small part of it seems to have taken a nasty turn. Spending two weeks in a different hemisphere only seems to amplify certain thresholds we should never have crossed. 

As denizens of the US do we have a responsibility to set a tone for the rest of the world? If you thought the behavior of the fans at the Ryder Cup was not beyond the pale or if you thought it was cool to drop F bombs and throw beer at the opponent’s wives, then we are on different wavelengths. There are basic tenets of decency, empathy, morality that I am trying to live my life by. Not always succeeding by any means but it is part of my game plan.How about you?

This all comes from the top whether it is government, business, military, professions, religion or education. We all have our part. It is so easy to blame one or the other but don’t we all have a hand in each one? If we vote clowns in aren’t we complicit? Corporations are constantly  paying exorbitant sums to make things go away without admitting guilt. Universities aren’t areas of discussion but lockstep acceptance to get a good grade. Religion? Do I even have to go there?

We all want to see gang members and criminals who have repeatedly come across our borders with abandon, kicked out once and for all. I just want to ask if this is what you voted for? Masked ICE enforcers answerable to no one. They don’t care if they are criminals or not, they just have to make quota. A man or woman could have standing in the community after being here for decades. Shouldn’t they at least have a hearing? There kids who were brought here at the age of one or two. Do you really want to toss them all out?

12 short years ago there was the “Gang of Eight in the congress who drafted legislation to undertake immigration reform in all quadrants from legalization, to border security to dealing with DACAS. Was it perfect? No, but it was a blueprint to be worked on. It passed the Senate and never even made it to the floor of the House for debate because of John Boehner. Of the eight notably there was John Mc Cain, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham. No word since. 

I cannot stand the Donald getting up and spouting off statistics that are nowhere close to the truth. People shrug their shoulders and say he is just being Trump. His berating and name calling of opponents are beyond childish. His threats of retribution for even a TV ad smack of a very insecure man. He cuts off discussion. He ascribes to the ready, shoot and aim form of warfare. He contradicts himself and backs off his pronouncements the next day. He rambles and constantly seeks adulation. Is this any way to run a railroad?

Wait! Do you think I have gone to the dark side?  No way! I am still firmly entrenched in the middle. Do I agree with Trumps objectives? Many of them. Do I like his style, demeanor, vacillation and gilded lifestyle? Not a prayer. Do I in any way see salvation in Chuck Schumer and Co? Not one iota. Gerrymandering is cheating the system no matter how you look at it. Taking a three or four week recess in Congress in the middle of a shutdown is unconscionable and criminal. The lack of backbone both locally and, nationally and worldwide is obscene.  I hope you catch my drift.  

Two articles blew me away this week. The first was about the FIG. That is Figueroa Street in LA. For FIFTY blocks it is the most notorious prostitution area in the US. Girls as young as twelve are being trafficked. The younger the more money people pay.One did her work with a colostomy bag attached. Why not put the National Guard to work here? How can this even exist in a modern and supposedly educated city? LA has been beset by cutbacks to police. Have we totally lost it as we label this a victimless crime?

Another was about Sudanese refugees in Chad. It seems US AID grants helped these people go to school and get on their feet in a business. The cost per student was $205. That’s it and they are on their way. Yet the machete of Rubio and Co removed all that with the surgical precision of a chain saw. Both of these articles just leaped out at me as a whole new brand of thinking. Don’t get involved. Let someone else figure it out. I am a very busy person and have to worry about my family. The US of A  is your family!

By now you think I am a bleeding heart liberal. I am not but I do have a crazy thing called empathy in my heart. I was not raised this way. I can’t look the other way. Absent in all of this is that no one seems to be fighting back. No one is standing up to the Bully in Chief. We cannot parse sound thinking from screaming and yelling at each other. Faith in our institutions of all sorts is at new lows. Some say we are numb. Some say this is new thinking vs old thinking. I am saying we have got to get off the couches of all classes. 

Please don’t take this as a whiner adding to the load. Take it as someone who is pissed off that in all our wealth and abundance we cannot figure out a way to share that. I wish it would start at the top. Doesn’t look that way. I guess we minions have to start from the middle. I really have had it! How about you?

As always 

Ted The Great 

Factoids;

Poverty in America is defined by a family of four making less that $30,000 per year. They spend about 40% on housing alone. Is it their fault? Maybe. Are there cheaters? Of course. But are they all bad? Good question.

Elon Musk wants to get paid $1 trillion. That is around $19 billion per week or almost $2.5 billion per day. The Mets pay Juan Soto $765 mill over 15 years or $62 mill per year. Tom Brady gets $37 mill over ten years to comment on NFL games. Are they worth it? Fired LSU football coach is going to be paid $53 million to do nothing. 

In a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Trump came up with supposedly 18 misstatements. Subject to debate. However when AI looked at 20 questions posed to him over a period of time, they found serious errors or exaggerations in 16 of them. They used 5 different AI programs to avoid bias. They all came up the same.

The House is in recess and has been so for several weeks. The next session is scheduled on November 7, 2025. Don’t worry. They are all getting paid on time. 

US aid to foreign countries was $100 billion in 2023. 40% of that was military aid. Of the $100 bill, $71 billion was actually spent. Top recipients were Ukraine,$17 bill, Israel,$3.3 bill, Jordan $1.7 bill,

Egypt $1.5 bill and Ethiopia $1.5 bill. 

I don’t want the Trumpster to fail. I just want hime to grow up and act like and adult. Pretty simple, huh?