POST #1,046: Random Observations

 

The following set of rambling observations are just the results of occasional comments made out in the Facebooksphere or notes scribbled in my notebook. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is purely intentional. The photo at the top of the page was taken by my old pal, John Harragin ten years ago during the Wall Street Occupation. That was a lot of fun!

1. Where the heck is Matt Gaetz?

It appears that Matt has slithered into the shadows. One year ago the guy's hideous punim was everywhere. Today, he seems to have fallen off of the radar. He is wise to keep a low profile. When the word got out that he may be implicated in a scandal gwhere minor girls were used in a sex trafficking scheme, it seemed very possible that his political career was about to blow up. It's a rare thing these days to see him as a talking head, waxing moronic on any conservative talking point on any given day. He is wise to keep a low profile.

2. GIULIANI UPDATE:

Andrew Giuliani is just one of many thousands of reasons why watching right-wing politicians in action is so much fun. The mystery is that he (along with his old man and Donald Trump) does not hail from Shit-For-Brains, Mississippi, he's from New York City - allegedly one of the most sophisticated cities on the planet! Why - it must be asked - does he say so many dumb things and take so many dumb positions? It is a question that I am incapable of answering. That being the case, it now appears that Andrew is preparing to run for governor of New York. The politics of our state tends to be somewhat boring in any year. That won't be the case when Andrew runs. I'm really looking forward to that campaign.

3. GOP Craziness:

It's sad and funny to see what has happened to the Republican Party in the last forty years. Sad because it was the one-time home of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Funny because of their capability of providing political junkies such as I with infinite barrels of riotous, unintentional laughter. To watch a group of grown men and women desperately trying to cater to the most unstable and non-intelligent members of society is an amusing thing to behold. Think about this: The unfortunately-named senator from Louisiana, John Kennedy, is an Oxford-educated Rhodes Scholar! He can't be an idiot! But to hear him talk on any forum, you would think that the guy had the IQ of a rancid bag of moldy mangoes. That party has fallen about as far as it is possible to fall. Seriously.

4. 

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

Here's a link to view my beloved and talented niece, Julia Degan, singing her heart out on Instagram:

ju 🐟 on Instagram: “I love this song so much!!! Billie's new album >>>> • • • • • @billieeilish @finneas #billieeilish #music #song #billiebossanova #producer”

Isn't she something? Her hair of floating sky is shimmering.

SUGGESTED READING:

For nearly forty years, Ken Burns has been producing documentaries on iconic people and eras in American history for the Public Broadcasting System. This week he has a five-part series on The Greatest.

Here is the eulogy I wrote for Muhammad Ali when he passed away five years ago:

"The Rant" by Tom Degan: Muhammad Ali 1942-2016

There will never be another like him. Stop waiting.

Justice for J6?

 

There are some tragically iconic dates in American history:

December 7, 1941; November 22, 1963; September 11, 2001; January 6, 2021....Let's just hope that September 18, 2021 doesn't turn out to be one of those nasty days of infamy.  

I say that to you without a molecule of levity. Tomorrow morning, the same gang (or at least their ideological cousins) will be swarming en masse onto the temple of democracy to protest the prosecutions of the folks who attempted to overthrow the results of a presidential election eight months and eleven days ago. Naturally Donald Trump (being Donald Trump) is once again on the sidelines in a blatant attempt to stir up this projected army of dingbats. Here is his statement on the upcoming festivities:

"Our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest concerning the Rigged Presidential Election."

The hideous little bastard just refuses to let it go. He's had eight months and eleven days to reflect on and review the facts. He knows damned good and well that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were legitimately chosen by the American people to be the commander-in-chief and vice-president until at least January 20, 2025 - but he continues to stir up a deadly nest of feeble-minded hornets. 

The barricades that were placed in front of the capitol building following the January 6th insurrection were taken down this past summer. They're back up again today. The capital police and the national guard will be out in force tomorrow. If the mob attempts to storm the building by force once again, the cops (federal and local) have instructions to shoot-to-kill. If any of these MAGA knuckleheads are armed (as I'm almost certain a good number of them will be) there could be a domestic bloodbath unparalleled since the days of the war between the states. Please pray with me that it doesn't come to that. This could get ugly, campers.

These fools are calling their rally, "Justice For J6". In other words they're demanding that everyone who was charged in the January rioting be set free. That's not justice at all. In fact, that would be a gross perversion of justice. We can predict that some of the schmucks who are still fugitives from justice will be brazen enough to show up tomorrow. Law enforcement agencies now posses facial recognition technology that would make the task of identifying some of these people a lot easier than it was even a decade ago. They would be wise to stay the heck away from D.C. tomorrow. None of them probably read this blog. Pity.

It's almost predictable that if there are mass arrests tomorrow, they'll be back on May 29, 2022 (eight months and eleven days from tomorrow) with a "Justice For S18" rally. It would be just like them, wouldn't it?

Keep your eyes on Washington tomorrow.

Tom Degan​

Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED READING:

He's Out of His Mind

from The Rant, January 6, 2021

I wrote this piece while the insurrection was happening. Here's a link to read it in its entirety:

"The Rant" by Tom Degan: He's Out Of His Mind

A very strange day indeed.

The Mad Drunk

Okay, here's where I roam into Pot-Calling-The-Kettle-Black territory. I'm not unknown for tippling the glasses more than a normal person should. Some who know me may find it hyper-hypocritical that I should be criticizing Rudy Giuliani for the same bad habits and bad behavior that I am also guilty of. My only defence is the fact that I am an Irish American writer. Most of us are drunks. So sue me.

Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea culpa.

But please bear in mind that I'm not out making public appearances in front of television cameras that are then beamed into millions of American homes. The only time I'm "out in public", so to speak, is when I write the blog you are now reading. I started this site fifteen years ago. This is Number 1044. In all of that time, I believe I only wrote two pieces where I was ten-sheets-to-the-wind. One of those incidents was in 2008 when I endorsed John Roberts for the presidency. Enough said? I was so completely intoxicated when I wrote the Roberts endorsement that I couldn't even remember writing it the following day. It's one of the only things I ever wrote that I am totally embarrassed by. Wouldn't you be? At this moment I am stone-cold-sober, I promise.

"And this is a caricature that the left is trying to put on me...I can't remember the last time I was drunk."

Rudy Guiliani 

Um, well....I can't remember the last time that I was drunk either, Rudy. I was in a blackout. That being said, let's cut to the chase: Rudy is a serious alcoholic. His recent public appearances have been embarrassing to watch - even to me - and I love to laugh at the craziness of the modern-day right wing! 

At an event commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America (which you would think would have been a fairly somber event) he did a slurring impersonation of Queen Elizabeth - and he then starting babbling incoherently about how he "never went out with" Prince Andrew. We can only hope that poor old Rudy was thoroughly intoxicated at that moment - otherwise there would be no other logical explanation for his totally weird behavior. For the sake of his own reputation, you would think that one of his handlers would reel the poor slob in and tell him that he needs to cool it. But no, every week or so we find him in yet another open forum, waxing inebriate on whatever subject happens to cross his clouded and failing mind.

Just prior to the 20th anniversary he warned Joe Biden (the president, I remind you) to stay out of New York City because he wasn't welcome there. What kind of crazy and idiotic thing is that to say to the president of the United States? If the Secret Service doesn't have a file on the former mayor of New York, they should start writing one - fast. 

Although I am hardly the one to talk, Rudy Giuliani really needs to ease up on the sauce. His historical legacy is already tarnished enough as it is because of his association with Donald Trump. He doesn't need to flush it any further down the toilet.

Tom Degan​

Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED LISTENING:

Flatbush Flannigan 

by the Harry James Orchestra (1941):

Listen to the quality of this recording. It was made eighty years ago and is a real toe-tapper! The fidelity is so clear it might have been recorded this morning. The arrangement is incredible!

1941 Harry James - Flatbush Flanagan - YouTube 

FUN FACT: My father was one of the last people to speak to Harry James on the night of his death, July 5, 1983.

9/11: Twenty Years On

 

I didn't spend too much time yesterday dwelling on the horror of September 11, 2001. It was such a bleak and depressing day that I try not to think about it at all. The woman I lived with on that day knew my habits better than anyone. She knew that, whenever there was a huge national news story, I would record the unedited coverage on videotape for posterity's sake - such as when Frank Sinatra, George Harrison and Bob Hope passed away. By the end of the day she asked me, "Aren't you going to  tape any of this?" ""No", was my answer. "I never want to look at this again". 

I still can't look at it twenty years later. I'll merely repeat this piece (slightly re-edited) that I wrote four years ago on the sixteenth anniversary:

************

It's a bit hard - STIKE THAT - it's impossible - not to let the memory stray back to the man-made catastrophe of 9/11/01. Late in the evening of Sunday, September 9, 2001, I gave my brother-in-law, Bob Borski, a ride to his home in Brooklyn. At around ten o'clock we passed just under the Twin Towers. I hadn't been that far downtown at night in a decade-or-so. I remember thinking how beautiful they looked towering over the night sky of Manhattan. Would George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue have sounded any different had those buildings existed in 1924? The 1993 terrorist assault on the World Trade Center was still a fresh memory. I speculated to Bob the damage a privately-owned D-10, it's aisles racked with 55 gallon drums of gasoline could do. It never occurred to me that a commercial airliner, filled with innocent human beings, would do the trick quite handily.

 

Thirty-six hours later, those buildings were gone forever.

 

The horror of September 11, 2001 has faded like the smoke that lingered over New York City for so many days afterward. I'm lucky in that I didn't lose any loved ones. My cousin, Patricia Cullen, who was working in one of the towers, barely escaped with her life. For about four hours we thought that she didn't make it. She was finally able to get through to us and let us know that she was safe and sound. The relief was palpable. Of course the families of many others wouldn't be as lucky as ours. My other brother-in-law, Jack Dermigny, lost his cousin Dan McGinley. Michael Stark, the brother of my pal, Joe, was one of the scores of firefighters who went into the towers, never to emerge. September 11, 2001 was that kind of day.

 

America's luck ran out on that day. Throughout all of our history, whenever we were confronted with a national trauma, the United States had been blessed with a leader at the helm who was able to guide the ship of state through the crisis with wisdom and clarity. Within months, in spite of the mass good will that was directed at him, it became clear what a mistake it had been to elect George W. Bush as president of the United States. His complete incompetence has been foreshadowed only by the corrupt and disastrous administration of Donald Trump. After nearly eight months of Trump, Bush is starting to look like Franklin Roosevelt. Never did I dream that things would get this weird. Did you? 

Hindsight is a funny thing, isn't it?

By noon on the day of the attack, all civilian aircraft across the nation were grounded. Late that night, for reasons I cannot remember, I found myself walking a deserted street in front of the commons building of the college I had attended over two decades before. It was there that I happened upon an old girlfriend. Of course, we were discussing the atrocity of that day when, from out of nowhere, the sky of Middletown, New York was jolted by the roar of what I assumed (and hoped) to be a military jet. Although invisible to us, it was obvious that it was flying at a low altitude. After a few minutes, we gave each other a hug in the darkened street and went on our separate ways. It was such a surreal ending of what had been a completely surreal day.

All of these years after the fact, 9/11 is still too depressing to think about - at least for me. The fact that the American people have foolishly turned over their government to incompetents who don't believe in government makes a terrorist attack on the scale of what happened on that day (or much worse) almost inevitable. This is the grave that the inmates of Idiot Nation have dug for themselves.

Have a lovely day!

********************

So there you have it. What happened on September 11, 2001 will be hanging over the nation's collective psyche until the very last person with a living memory of that day steps into eternity. Until then....

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED LISTENING:

America The Beautiful

by Ray Charles

(1) America the Beautiful. Ray Charles. (1972) - YouTube

If it were up to me, it would be a misdemeanor for anyone but Ray to sing this song. No one ever did it better. No one ever will. God rest his soul.

My Problem With Sirhan

In case you haven't heard the latest. a California parole board yesterday recommended that Sirhan Bishara Sirhan be released for the June 1968 murder of New York Senator and candidate for the office of the presidency, Robert Francis Kennedy. The decision is now in the hands of Governor Gavin Newsom whether-or-not Sirhan is to be set free as a bird. This is a horrible idea on too many levels to count. Let me explain:

1. In 1968, as a presidential candidate for the Democratic nomination, Bobby Kennedy was determined to end America's involvement in Viet Nam if inaugurated in January of 1969. Had he lived, he would probably have been elected on Election Day 1968. If not for Sirhan's fatal bullet, there would today be thirty-thousand less names on the wall of the Viet Nam War Memorial in Washington D.C. Most of the fatalities of that idiotic conflict occurred under the watch of Dick Nixon and Henry Kissinger.

2. Had RFK been elected in 1968, his term, I am sure, would have lasted until January 20, 1977. The progressive enlightenment that his administration would surely have swept upon the American landscape might very well have prevented the election of Ronald Reagan  three years later, and the decades of right wing lunacy that would come close to destroying this country. It is not-at-all far fetched to lay the blame for Donald Trump at the feet of Sirhan Sirhan.

3.  Had Robert F. Kennedy been allowed the gift of time, we would have been spared the nightmare of Watergate. In short, we would all be better off if Bobby were still walking among us....Sure, he probably would have died a long time ago - he would have turned ninety-six on November 20 of this year - but it's nice to imagine what might have been.

4. Oh, yeah - and it's a pretty safe bet that Henry Kissinger would not have been advising President Robert F. Kennedy on foreign policy. That's just a lucky guess on my part. Americans would still be dying in Viet Nam in the spring of 1975 - nearly seven years after Senator Kennedy stepped so violently into eternity. 

I was just two months and ten days shy of my tenth birthday on June 6, 1968, the day Bobby Kennedy died. He had lingered in a coma all day Wednesday the fifth. I can still remember early Thursday morning when my father came into our room and quietly woke Brother Pete and I with the words, "Senator Kennedy passed away a few minutes ago." I can still clearly hear his voice in my memory all of these decades later. To say that I was completely traumatized would be an understatement.

I loved Bobby Kennedy. I still do.

His two sons, Douglas and Robert Jr.,  have been spending the last two weeks pleading for Sirhan's release. I don't know much about Doug, but I know for certain that young Bobby has spent the last few years stumbling around the country, spouting off some perfectly nutty things; one of those perfectly nutty things is his absurd contention that Sirhan is innocent - despite the testimony of over twenty eye-witnesses. Joseph P. Kennedy II, the late senator's eldest son, has vehemently condemned Sirhan's parole. I imagine that the conversation around the Thanksgiving dinner table in Hyannis Port should be quite lively this November. 

The fact of the matter is that Sirhan Sirhan stabbed democracy in the heart on June 5, 1968. His defence is that he was too young to know any better at the time. REALLY??? He wasn't a child - he was twenty-four years old! When I was twenty-four I certainly was old enough to know the difference between right and wrong! When Bob Dylan was twenty-four he had already recorded six albums! When Buddy Holly was twenty-four years old he had been dead for two years! The defense that he was just a kid doesn't pass the giggle test - Sorry. Robert Kennedy was murdered for no other reason than the fact that he had supported Israel in the Six Day War the year before. His life was taken away because Sirhan Sirhan was an anti-Semite. He probably still is for all we know.

FUN FACT: Lee Harvey Oswald was twenty-four when he murdered Jack Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Do the arithmetic: By the standards of Sirhan, had he lived, Lee should have been paroled in 2016. Really?

Sirhan was originally supposed to receive the death penalty. During his sentencing, the Kennedy family - to their great credit - pleaded for his life, as well they should have. I have never been a proponent of capital punishment, and I'm happy that his life was spared, but he should never again see the light of day. The damage that the silly little bastard did to this once-great nation is incalculable. A pardon for Sirhan Sirhan would also set a sad and dangerous precedent. An assassin should never be allowed to cast the ultimate and fatal ballot. Any potential murderer of any candidate for public office should know that the key to the jail cell door will be thrown away forever once it has been slammed shut behind him.

Governor Newsom was born eight months before Robert F. Kennedy died. He has no recollection of the trauma that RFK's murder put the nation through. I hope he does the wise thing.

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

Here is ABC News coverage of the assassination of Robert Kennedy late on the night of June 5, 1968. We should never forget what Sirhan's twisted little trigger finger did to America.

(9) The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy ABC News Live Coverage - YouTube 

Never forget.

AFTERTHOUGHT:

I'm sorry I've been off for over two weeks. Lately I've been having balancing issues. I spilled a large cup of vodka and V8 juice on my keyboard and it was rendered  completely useless. I was only able to replace it this afternoon.

Unreasonable Discourse

Not since Joe McCarthy (whom, let me remind you, has been dead for nearly sixty-five years) has a United States politician so befouled the temple of democracy than Jim Jordan. My complete and utter contempt for this disgusting little thug knows no bounds. His state of Ohio (which, thankfully, is not Texas or Mississippi) is packed to the rafters with smart, sensible people. I hope they're smart enough to send him packing in November. I believe they are. Jim Jordan is nothing less than a cancer on Washington. One of the greatest moments of the first quarter of the twenty-first century was recently when he attempted to disgrace Dr. Anthony Fauci. The good doctor made a fool out of the congressman by his simple display of logic, wisdom and grace. I imagine that poor old Jimmy cried himself to sleep that night.

Former GOP House Speaker John Boehner recently described Jordan as the type of politician who does not create anything. He is only in Washington to destroy. That's about as good a description of this fool as I've ever read. He was recently disqualified by current Speaker Nancy Pelosi from serving on a house select committee charged with investigating the January 6 insurrection that attempted to overthrow the results of a presidential election. The reason being that Jordan may very well be called as a witness. In fact, he may have had prior knowledge to and may even had taken part in the plot to subvert democracy in America. Nothing would surprise me. The man in despicable.

I don't particularly care for Jim Jordan.  Have I made myself abundantly clear on that point?

Seventy years ago there was, fortunately, only one Joe McCarthy. Today, the halls of congress are polluted with scores of McCarthy wannabes. Jim Jordan is one of the  most obscene of them. The thought that he today walks the same floors that were once walked by Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams is enough to give any thinking person the dry heaves. He is the most vile and disgusting American politician I have seen in my entire lifetime (I'll be sixty-three tomorrow).

The state of Ohio should be internationally shamed if they're stupid enough to send this ruthless putz back to Washington D.C. on the upcoming election day. Forgive me for repeating myself, but I don't particularly care for Jim Jordan.

So there!

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

ESSENTIAL VIEWING:

Here is a video clip of Dr. Anthony Fauci wiping the floor with Jim Jordan back in April.

(3) Exchange between Rep. Jim Jordan and Dr. Anthony Fauci - YouTube

Asshole.

So Far, Pretty Good

I have to be honest with you: I did not support Joe Biden during last year's primary season. My heart and soul were with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. In fact, I was disappointed when he won the nomination last summer/ At the time, my belief was that, once again, the Democrats had taken a fine bottle of expensive champagne and turned it into a worthless jug of donkey piss (as they've been known to do. Remember Mike Dukakis?) I only voted for Joe Biden last November because he was not Donald Trump. I must admit out loud that I was wrong about Joe - as wrong as I've ever been about anyone. He's not the flaming lefty of my wildest dreams - but he's good enough.

I like Joe Biden and I'm glad that he is my president.

In fact, I've always liked Joe Biden. What's not to like? It must also be said that it's a nice thing to not wake up suddenly in the middle of the night in a cold sweat knowing that the White House is not being occupied by a psychologically deranged, intellectually deficient president who is capable inflicting so much damage on our country. 

Donald Trump made me nostalgic for George W. Bush. Think about that for a minute or two. 

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

AFTERTHOUGHT, 4:00 PM, 8/13/21:

Again, I apologize for leaving this one unfinished from the night before - as I did a few days ago. Time to quit the sauce. 

POST #1039: RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

What follows is merely an assortment of unrelated observations on current events. Similarities to any persons - living or dead - are purely intentional.

 1. Tax Time for The Donald:

The chickens are coming home to roost - with a horrible vengeance - for our esteemed ex-president. The people who look after these things have been legally ordered to hand over Trump's tax returns to the people charged with investigating these things. In other words, Donald wants no one to see what he has been up to as far as his personal finances are concerned. The public knowledge of this might very-well be the billion dollar shit-hammer that he has been fearing since the moment he announced his candidacy six very long years ago. He may be out of power now, but his existence continues to be the train wreck that we can't take our eyes off of. This should prove interesting.r

2. Andrew Cuomo:

It's official. As of two weeks from today, Andrew Cuomo will no longer be the governor of New York State. This is probably a good thing. He can no longer govern the people of the Empire State. It's over. His incredible career, which I believed would eventually lead him to the Oval Office, is as done-a-deal as is possible. He was a pretty good governor. This is tragic on too many levels to count. My sympathies for the women who had to work under him and his staff. I also feel terrible for his daughters and the fact that his poor mother had to live to witness this disgrace. 

3. Britney Spears:

I'm sorry, but I don't spend too much time thinking about Britney Spears. Sorry 'bout that. 

4.  Crazy Marge:

Marjorie Taylor Greene is seriously hinting that she will be a candidate for the presidency in 2024. This is a sort of "good news/bad news" scenario. The good news is the fact that, three years from now, the campaign for the GOP nomination should be packed to the rafters with unintentional humor. The bad news is that we shouldn't put it past the inmates of Idiot Nation to send her to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Good luck, America.

5. What happened to Matt Gaetz?

One would imagine that Florida's embarrassing congressman is grateful to Andy Cuomo for taking the spotlight off of him - if only for a moment. This period of relative calm will soon be over for poor old Matt, of that you can be certain. I always love it when the "Family Values" mob are exposed as the moral hypocrites they are. Keep your eyes on the implosion of Matt Gaetz in the weeks and months to come. Like Donald Trump and Crazy Margie Taylor Greene, the man is a walking-talking train wreck.

6. Raise a Glass to Biden:

Here's to Joe Biden for being able to get his one trillion dollar infrastructure bill passed. I didn't think he would be able to pull it off. Hopefully Republicans are coming around to the idea that, as taxpayers, we need to invest in America in order to keep it healthy. Only good can come of this. He's turning out to be a pretty good president, isn't he? We shouldn't be surprised.

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

AFTERTHOUGHT (8/11/21, 9:34 AM):

For those of you who tuned in early, I apologize for leaving this piece unfinished last night. I'm afraid I had one too many. Time to quit.

SUGGESTED READING:

Kennedy and King

The President, the Pastor, and the Battle Over  Civil Rights

by Steven Levingston

A very interesting study on the historic, sometimes-contentious relationship between the administration of Jack Kennedy and Martin Luther King. I couldn't put it down.

SUGGESTED LISTENING:

The Warsaw Concerto

by Richard Addinsell

Addinsell Warsaw Concerto BBC Proms 2013 Lisitsa Lockhart BBC Concert Orchestra - YouTube

One of my all time favorite pieces of music. A real beauty!

What A Mess

"Since he first ran for the office a decade ago, I have cast my ballot for Andrew Cuomo. The first time was one of the easiest calls I ever made. His opponent in that contest (whose name escapes me) seemed like he was about to explode at any second. I have consistently voted for him three times and, if he is again on the ballot in 2022, I'll vote for him again. Although I've disagreed with some of his policies and decisions, I have always thought him to be a fairly decent governor. Recently, however, my admiration for him has gone up several notches. We here in New York are blessed to have him in Albany."

From The Rant, May 1, 2020

What a difference fifteen months makes. The astonishing political career of Andrew Cuomo is about as kaput as can be. It is not possible (as is being suggested in some circles) that each of his accusers are part of some vast right wing conspiracy in order to tarnish the governor's reputation and agenda. To even remotely entertain the notion that all of them are lying is beyond insanity. I've heard all that I need to hear on the subject and I'm convinced that, for the good of the people of the Empire State, Andy needs to pack his bags as soon as possible

This is a difficult thing for me to say because I have been a vocal supporter of him from the moment he announced his candidacy a number of years ago, and I never hesitated to cast my ballot for the man. My silly way of thinking was that the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, right? How naive of me. In this case, the apple fell off of the tree and rolled into another county.

` 

In the Me, Too consciousness of our time, for him to stay in his position is wrong on too many levels to count. Decency dictates that we believe the accusations of the women who describe as "toxic" the work environment of Governor Cuomo's office. 

As progressives, we don't need to copy the hypocrisy of our right wing counterparts by ignoring the reality of the situation and mindlessly going on with business as usual. The proof that Donald Trump is a pervert and a rapist is vast and voluminous. Although Cuomo's misconduct is not of Trumpian proportions, they are bad enough to be sure. When we are given clear evidence of predatory sexual behavior on our side of the ideological divide, we need to call it out for what it is and move on from there. We can't afford anything less.

This whole mess has me sick to my stomach. I'm Going back to bed.

Tom Degan, Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

Here is another Cuomo from another time. This is Mario Cuomo's address to the Democratic convention, July 16, 1984 - one of the great speeches of all time....

Mario Cuomo's 1984 Convention Speech - YouTube 

As good as it gets.

Who Knew What When?

 

This is something I really need to know. You really need to know it, too, if you're honest with yourself. Who the hell in power were complicit in the insurrection of January 6? This is the question that was asked by more than one Capital Hill police officer yesterday before a House select committee. This is probably why so many politicians who are allied with that disgusting party are so hell-bent on downplaying what happened on completely weird day. What many of these people don't understand is that one cannot hide from history. The truth will be known one way or the other - the sooner the better.

You've got to wonder about some people, you know?  So many are trying to portray what happened on January 6, 2021 as "business as usual" or trying to make us believe that the mob was merely a normal group of D.C. tourists. The fact that they repeat these nonsenses with straight faces makes the whole thing all-the-more surreal. Donald Trump himself has talked about all of the "love" exhibited that day by the same folks who wanted to hang Mike Pence. Aren't politics a hoot?

What happened on that day set so many nasty precedents that it's hard to know where to begin. For the first time in American history there was not a peaceful transfer of power. Even during the civil war America managed to avoid violence in the streets of Washington. People were revved up by propaganda from every direction thanks to right wing media. The FCC needs to come down hard on these news channels that spread misinformation like poison lollipops. I watched once again the George Clooney film, Goodnight and Good Luck about the legendary CBS newsman, Edward R. Murrow. One can only imagine the horror and embarrassment that Murrow would have felt at the wreckage of the American media landscape in July 2021. He once described television as potentially "nothing more than wires and lights in a box". That's kind of where we've gone. 

Tom Degan​

Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

Murrow (1986)

This made-for-TV biography on the great man is worth your time:

Murrow (TV Movie) (1986) - YouTube

He was as good as they get.

The Hearings Commence

 

The hearings to try to uncover who was really behind the attack on the Capital - and who instigated that attack - commenced this morning with testimony by members of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department who were first-hand eye witnesses to the carnage of that day of infamy. I drove around the back roads on the area that I live in, absorbing every word.

One thing that struck me more than anything else, was the officers' insistence that the politicians use every means possible to determine which members of the House and Senate were involved in that conspiracy. There are more-than-a-few people who conspired to pervert our democratic process on the sixth of January. There is no more excuse to defend this disgusting party. They're beyond redemption. Is anybody home???

We cannot continue down this trail any longer. We're almost at the point of no return, dangling at the precipice. If you're stupid enough to believe that this is merely business a usual, and that what we are experiencing is nothing more than a blip on the radar, you might as well go back to sleep. 

America is imploding - more than any time since the Civil War. Wake the fuck up, folks.

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

GET THE FREAKIN' VACCINE ALREADY!

This will be mercifully brief, I promise.

Just when we have pacified ourselves into believing that the worst of the hideous epidemic that crippled this country and the world for sixteen months is behind us, we're being told that the infection rates are beginning to spike once again at a rate of thirty percent daily due to a new variant of the COVID virus that has appeared particularly (although not exclusively) in areas of the country more susceptible to the kind of misinformation/propaganda that oozes daily from various right wing "news" sites across America on any given day - and every given night. It's gratifying to see that even the chuckleheads on Fox and Friends are starting to take this a bit more seriously than they have previously. Tucker Carlson, on the other hand, has yet to get with the program. Why is he still on the air? My guess is that by year's end, he will be long gone. Wishful thinking, I know. Fox Nooz - and a few other nooz entities - need to have their broadcast licenses permanently revoked. The bodies of nearly a million of our fellow citizens lay at their feet.

With the exception of a small handful of silly trolls, I suspect that most of you who bother to read this site (and I thank you for that - trolls and all!) have already received your vaccines. I would only ask that you copy the link to this piece and forward it to anyone you may personally know, be it friends or family members, and implore them with the seriousness of this situation. I saw an interview on CBS This Morning with some nitwit hooked up to a ventilator who said (with a straight face) that he doesn't regret not getting the vaccination and has no plans on getting one if he recovers (and I pray that he does - Seriously!) A woman whose name I cannot remember - who received national attention due to her opposition to the vaccine - died a few days ago. These are just two examples of thousands. 

Where have you gone, Herman Cain?

It would seem to Yours Truly that they don't have these problems in most other countries. What the heck is it about these silly Americans?

Tell everyone you know that they need to get vaccinated, and refuse to associate with them unless and until they do. That'll learn 'em!

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

Here is an interview that was broadcast a couple of hours ago with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on MSNBC's Morning Joe:

(1) Fighting Virus Isn't A Partisan Issue, Says Secretary Of State Blinken - YouTube

An ounce of prevention, as they say....

Treasonous Little Thugs

I cannot even refer to them as the "Republican Party" any longer, because that would imply that they are still the  party of Abraham Lincoln. They aren't. As I said on the first piece I ever wrote for this site over fifteen years ago, "Abraham Lincoln's influence on the Republican Party ended at 7:22 on the morning of April 15,1865 when he breathed his last breath."

They aren't the party of Theodore Roosevelt. They aren't the party of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Hell, they aren't even the party of Dick Nixon any longer. This is a criminal syndicate that for four very long years was run by an organized crime boss who enjoyed almost universal support by Republicans in the House and the Senate. The congress these days reeks with the overwhelming stench of fried elephant shit.

The most repulsive chiefs executives in our history are starting to look like dainty little cherubs. Ain't that something? These are interesting times to say the least.

The extreme right wing conservatives in the congress are attempting to prevent a thorough and broad investigation into the worst attack on the capitol since 1814. They obviously don't want us to learn who instigated the tragedy that occurred on January 6, 2021, another day that will live in infamy. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a sincere effort to put together a bi-partisan panel of the select committee refuses to put Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana on that committee. One of the reasons for this is the fact that the two of these guys are the most disruptive Trump stooges in that body; but I suspect that there might be another reason for this. It is my feeling that Nancy may have some hard intelligence that either one - or both of them - may be culpable in what happened on that day.

I never dreamed that I would live to hear me write these words, but thank God for Liz Cheney.

The hearings will commence next week regardless of the effort that House minority leader Kevin McCarthy makes to put the old kibosh on it. Don't these fools understand that you cannot run away from history? Sixty years ago, I am sure that Jack Kennedy never dreamed that, all of these decades later, we would have an encyclopedic knowledge of his reckless philandering and inside ties with the Mob....WE KNOW ALL (or most) ABOUT IT. Do these knuckleheads within the GOP believe that they will fare any better? Apparently they do.

Pay attention to what happens in Washington for the next two or three months. This is going to get interesting.

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

AFTERTHOUGHT:

Two nights ago I got into an altercation with a boiling hot bowl of Campbell's Creamy Tomato Soup. The boiling hot bowl of Campbell's Creamy Tomato Soup won that altercation.

I usually need a cane to walk these days, but I figured since the distance between the stove and the kitchen table is only two steps - three steps tops - I would have no problem. Bad move! I lost my balance and went crashing to the floor. The bowl of Campbell's Creamy Tomato soup hit the edge of the table and a good deal of it poured onto the palm and back of my left hand, burning myself pretty badly in the process. As I don't have a cell phone camera at the moment, I am unable to show you the extent of my injuries. You might want to consider this a blessing.

Ouch.

Thanks to the nice folks at Horizon Medical Group of Florida, NY for dressing my wounds and mending me up!

Uber Brothers

 

I feel kind of sorry for Junior and Eric - in a weird and ironic sort of you understand. They're no longer above the law as they were for four whole years when their unhinged dad lived in the White House. Dear old Dad no longer has the power to protect them from the justice that most of the rest of us are subjected to if our behavior gets too naughty for society to tolerate. Unless your name is Barron, currently it positively sucks to be a son of Donald Trump. Donnie (the dumb one) and Eric (the even dumber one) cannot expect a pardon from Joe Biden - that ain't gonna happen, boys and girls. Trump should have listened to Matt Gaetz and issued a blank pardon all across the board. Matt's strategy is embarrassingly obvious. He was obviously anticipating the investigation of him for child sex trafficking. That's neither here nor there; Trump would have possibly avoided many headaches had he listened to Gaetz.

The whole affair is as embarrassing as can be imagined. The fact that Donald Trump was able to make me look back upon the Bush 43 era with a sense of teary-eyes nostalgia tells you how impossibly low the bar has been set with respect to chiefs executive. 

I'm not sure what (if anything) the boys are guilty, but it's obvious to everyone that they're not acting the way innocent people usually do - and that goes for their father as well. He reminds me more and more of John Gotti these days. And the Gotti comparison is more apt than some people might realize. Between 2017 and 2021, the United States of America was being operated by an organized crime family. That is not a reckless exaggeration; that is a non-deniable fact. It can also be argued that unless the GOP is seized very soon by the people out there with IQs above a half-eaten box of Milk Duds (I know they're out there) it will disappear from America's political map. If it exists at all, it will only be as a fringe group. Dwight Eisenhower wouldn't recognize it in its present incarnation.

I would imagine at this moment that Donald J. Trump would cite running for president as the single worst mistake of his life.

Tom Degan, Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

YouTube's "Legal Eagle" breaks down the Trump/Weisselberg indictment to its bare essentials:

Diving Deep into the Trump/Weisselberg Indictment - YouTube 

Cheers!

In remembrance:

Sixty nine years ago today, Mom and Dad were married at St. Matthew's Catholic Church in South Bend, Indiana.

The Persecution of Hervis Rogers

 

I've never asked this before, but please, share this with as many people as possible. The word needs to be out there.

Remember the name "Hervis Rogers". I have a feeling that he just may very well turn out to be this year's George Floyd. Fortunately, although incarcerated in a Texas jail at this hour, he is alive to tell his story - unlike Floyd - who was murdered in cold blood by some sadistic police officer in Minneapolis last year. In March of 2020, sixteen months ago, Mr. Rogers, a resident of Houston, Texas, went down to his local polling place to cast his ballot in the Super Tuesday primary. 

Although technically still out on parole because of a robbery he had been convicted of nearly thirty years previously, Hervis is being charged by the state of Texas with voter fraud; the fact that he is still a legally registered voter is irrelevant to that state's attorney general, Ken Paxton. He wants to make Mr. Rogers an example to the rest of these uppity darkies in Texas who would exercise their constitutional right to vote. Paxton, as you might guess, has been instrumental in trying to suppress the votes of dark-skinned people in recent years. The racial demographic of Texas is rapidly changing, and all over the United States, bigoted fools like Ken Paxton are determined that this new reality be rendered null and void.

On primary day last year, Hervis Earl Rogers stood in line for six solid hours in order to cast his precious ballot. The fact that it was believed that he was the last person in the state to vote that year, he made a bit of statewide (and even national) news. When approached by a television reporter and asked where he was off to, Hervis grinned and explained gently that he needed to get back to work. Despite the lateness of the hour, I strongly suspect that Hervis works more than one job in order to make ends meet. That's just a silly hunch on my part - pay it no mind.

A full sixteen months went by before Ken Paxton - or one of his lickspittles on the state payroll - looked into the record of Hervis Rogers. He was arrested, jailed, and is being held on $100,000 bail. If convicted of this "crime" against the United States, he is facing anywhere between two to ten years in prison. God bless America.

FUN FACT:

Ken Paxton is currently under indictment on three criminal charges, felonies all - including securities fraud. Several of his staff members have filed complaints against him for illegally using his office for improper purposes. 

Hervis Rogers is a resident of Harris County - which is one of the most racially diverse counties in that entire miserable state, but Paxton is charging Harris from the DA's office in Montgomery County - which is one of the least diverse. If you are unable to understand that Rogers is being persecuted in order to intimidate African Americans in Texas from voting, then you might as well go back to sleep. Sweet dreams.

Hervis is more-than-likely guilty of nothing more than an innocent mistake. His parole ended in June of last year, three months after he voted. The fact that his "crime" was committed out in the open and in full view of the media should tell us something. President Biden should issue a pardon immediately.

Get the word out fast. What is happening to Hervis Rogers is an illegal atrocity on so many levels that it is difficult to contemplate. The fools who run the professional Republican party in all of the states and territories are determined to turn this place into a banana republic without the bananas. We cannot let that happen, right?

RIGHT?

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

Here is a report from the Rachel Maddow broadcast two nights ago that first made me aware of this atrocity:

Texas Charges Man Who Waited Six Hours To Vote With Illegal Voting - YouTube

Everyone needs to be aware of the persecution of Hervis Rogers. Everyone needs to be in a rage.