What's Up With Junior?

 

Bobby Jr. and Uncle Jack

That rumbling sound you hear in the distance is the sound of Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. doing somersaults in his grave.

It's been somewhat gut-wrenching to watch most of the surviving children of Robert and Ethel Kennedy patiently roll their eyes at some of the positions the second-eldest brother in that brood has taken on various subjects over the years. First there is his insane position on vaccinations - which even I took seriously at first. After all, was my thinking, he's a reasonable man. Why would he take such a position if it wasn't perfectly reasonable? I tended to give the guy the benefit of the doubt back then.

Then came the quest that he and his brother, Doug, taken on to have Sirhan B. Sirhan released from a prison where he has sat for nearly fifty-five years. To refresh your memory, Sirhan is the man who,  on June 5, 1968, shot their dad. He died the following day.  Sirhan pled guilty to the crime and was promptly sentenced to death. The Kennedy family - in an act of supernatural compassion and mercy - pleaded for his life to be spared and the sentence was reversed to life in prison. Now Junior is trying to have his father's killer released from prison because (GET THIS!) he is innocent of the crime. This despite the fact that there were about twenty-two eye witnesses who saw Sirhan fire the gun. Most of those eye witnesses were newsmen who (despite what you may think about newsmen) have a nasty habit of getting things right. One of those eyewitnesses was his own mother. 

Teddy and Jimmy

And now Bobby is running for the presidency of the United States. Would someone please explain to this silly man that I have as good a chance of being elected the 47th POTUS as he has? There are jolly good reasons why the likes of Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson and Mike Flynn look to his run so approvingly: he is trying to do to Joe Biden what his uncle Ted did to Jimmy Carter in 1980. When Kennedy challenged a sitting president of his own party in the Democratic primaries that year, he did so much political damage to Carter that the president was easily defeated in the general election later in the Autumn by a feeble-minded, failed "B" movie actor. It should not be forgotten that no one is more responsible for the nightmare years of the "Reagan Revolution" than "liberal icon" Teddy Kennedy. If DeSantis or Trump are able to take Biden out of the White House in 2024, a lot of fingers (including my own middle finger) will be pointed at Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 

Some men see things the way they aren't and ask, "What?" I dream things that never will be and ask, "WHAT THE FUCK???"

It would be a poignant thought to pretend that he is merely picking up the torch that his dad dropped on the kitchen floor of the Ambassador Hotel on that horrible night in Los Angeles all those decades ago. I don't believe that this is his motivation. This is, sadly, all about his ego. Nothing more.

Bobby Kennedy and I have a few mutual friends and I have met him many times in the course of thirty-five years. Let me say out front that he's a good guy; an expert falconer, and one of the most passionate environmental advocates to come down the pike since Rachel Carson. But there is no way on earth that he has a chance of being elected to the presidency in 2024. Any legacy he has is in danger of being obliterated if he decides to go through with this. Should he somehow - MIRACULOUSLY - get the nomination next year, you can be certain the Republicans are going to use certain long-ago chapters in his personal biography to tarnish him. I'm wasting my time pointing this out. He's not going to be the Democratic standard bearer in 2024 - and I'm sure he knows this. His candidacy should not be taken seriously by anyone.

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

AFTERTHOUGHT 5/23/23:

Forgive me for taking so long to finish this one, folks. Health issues.

DO NO HARM

A Right Wing Thug

I can't get over the fact that the two candidates with the greatest chances of winning the GOP nomination next year are the most dangerous and incompetent politicians to come down the pike in my lifetime (I'll be sixty-five in August). When you think about it for a half a minute, a choice between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis is really no choice at all. It's akin to tossing a coin for either Pudgy the Clown or Bobo the Simpleminded. In the great and universal scheme of things, Donny and Ronny were put on this earth for no other reason than to amuse me - and let it be said that they're doing an awfully good job of it. Seriously, neither of these knuckleheads has no other useful function on this troubled planet.

My most recent beef with DeSantis is the new law he just signed into being (which takes effect on July 1) that would allow doctors in the state of Florida the right to refuse to treat any group of people whose lifestyles they don't approve of. In other words, A homophobic M.D.  would be perfectly within his or her rights to allow some poor gay man or woman die. My question is: does this new law apply to doctors in the emergency rooms of that obscenely overrated state? Is being black considered a "lifestyle" to these demented freaks? The Jim Crow Special, that dilapidated old train, has been taken out of mothballs, refurbished for the twenty-first century, and is about to leave the station. All Aboard.

As I've pointed out on this site twice before, Ron DeSantis was born the month after my twentieth birthday in 1978. How is it that such a relatively young guy become such a twisted and bitter old bastard in a mere forty-five years? I would be interested in knowing what his parents were like. Was he bullied in school? Or, like The Donald, was he the perennial bully? We have a clue as to his parents values by the fact that Ron's middle name is "Dion" after Dion DiMucci (of "Dion and The Belmonts" fame). Nothing against Dion; the man is a great singer and has written some perfectly beautiful songs - no doubt about it. But if I ever have a son and I name him John, it will be in honor of my late father - not John Lennon. 

Heed my warning, campers: If this knucklehead or Trump are able to find themselves sitting in the Oval Office on January 20, 2025, this country is finished.

Tom Degan 

Goshen, NY

post# 1,117: Random Observations

 

Sinko De Mayo - Get it? (Photograph by Brian K. Sager)

Stay Healthy and Safe

The following are a collection of random thoughts that I had scribbled into my notebook or posted on my Facebook page. Any similarities to any people, living or dead, are purely intentional.

1: Ron InSantis:

If the inmates of Idiot Nation are crazy enough to send Ron DeSantis to the White House in 2024 (and I suspect that they are) they’re going to deserve everything that happens to them. The man is every bit as extreme as Donald Trump. The difference is that Trump is an imbecile. DeSantis is not. That is what makes him all the more dangerous in my opinion. DeSantis is a dangerous reactionary. I suspect that he might have us all nostalgic for Trump after a while.

2. Ginny and Uncle Thomas:

It is now perfectly clear to anyone with the attention span of your average fruit fly that Clarence Thomas and his wife, Virginia, have been making a financial killing because of their connections to the highest court in the land. Thomas is the most pathetic House Negro to come along since Stepin Fetchit. Rightly, the conservatives in the House of Reprehensibles would not tolerate this sort of blatant corruption from any of the liberals on the court (nor would I for that matter). He needs to be impeached as soon as humanly possible. His presence on the court - and her obvious influence of his written opinions - should not be allowed to continue

3. Wisdom on Facebook:

I just now came upon a random posting on Facebook by a gentleman named Ron Luther that made my day. Here is what he said:

" 'Thoughts and prayers' is just American slang for tough shit".

The man deserves a Nobel Prize for that posting alone.

4. Biden v. Trump

Polls show that forty-five percent of the electorate would rather see Trump elected next year as opposed to Biden's thirty-nine percent. This is civic insanity, boys and girls. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were not my choices in 2020 simply because they were not progressive enough for me (they still aren't. A lot of people fear that, given Biden's age. he might be succeeded bu Harris as president. Perhaps their fears are grounded - perhaps not. All I can tell you that if Trump becomes the first president since Gover Cleveland to be elected to two non-consecutive terms, we might as well pack it in as a nation. Seriously, folks.

Tom Degan, Goshen, NY

AFTERTHOUGHT, 5/8/23:

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

One night in 1968, Harry Belafonte and Petula Clark performed a song together on national television. While doing so, Petula clung to Harry. In some less than enlightened sectors of the American night, the citizenry had a mass case of spastic apoplexy. On that night, these two legendary performers took baby steps toward integration and love and understanding. See it now, children….

(4) Harry Belafonte & Petula Clark - On The Path of Glory (Live) - YouTube

This is historic, folks.