Saturday, December 31, 2016

Something just doesn't seem right....or fair.

2016 has one more day and as I sit down to summarize a very complex year, all I think about is how unfair the following statement is.

WE LOST MUHAMMAD ALI 
AND 
WE 
GAINED 
DONALD TRUMP

I understand that life can be unfair and there are really no valid explanations on why certain things happen to certain people at uncertain times but putting those two men in a comparison mode just highlights the tragedy of the recent current events.

Obviously Donald J. Trump being elected the 45th President of the United States is the biggest surprise of the year and thus the most important event mainly because of political, social and environmental ramifications that could result from America having a HUGE brain fart.

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There was one film I saw in 2016 that should be required viewing in every High School and College.
And it might be a good idea to show this film to every Police Academy graduating class in America.

13th

It's a documentary by Ava DuVernay.

Stunning 
and contains statistics that will boggle your mind.

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I read the most interesting book (which means it has to be non-fiction) by a physicists named
 Lisa Randall.

DARK MATTER and the DINOSAURS

It will open your eyes and your mind if you have any interest in science and how the Universe operates.

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The Chicago Cubs won the World Series and that would have been the main sports story of 2016 (and probably still is in Chicago)
if
Vin Scully hadn't retired.

The retirement of Vin will be felt in ways that are hard to calculate....keeping in mind that MOST people don't follow baseball and couldn't care less that the greatest broadcaster in history is now listening to someone one else.......just like us. With replays and recordings a little dose of Vinny is available anytime.


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Music got hammered in 2016 with Prince and David Bowie leading the departure train.  Since their music is captured forever, immortality is guaranteed as long as Earth orbits the Sun.


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ISIS, Syria, Aleppo, Destroyed Ancient Artifacts and Trucks running over people at celebrations were major international stories......
Police shootings of Black and homeless citizens in the United States is a major internal story......
BUT
The Russians hacking the DNC and then passing information to Wiki Leaks will turn out to be the
BIGGEST
STORY
because it's tied to our 2016 Presidential Election in ways that will be slow to unfold.
Think back to Nixon
Think now about Trump
both extremely paranoid 
and both with followers that will do anything to make their bosses happy.

THIS STORY WILL ONLY GROW AND GROW
and our relationship with Russia will end up being the main story for 2017.

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I could continue to flap on about 2016 but honestly the Donald Trump story just makes me so depressed that I literally have run out of words

Happy New Year?????????????????

Michael Timothy McAlevey




















Saturday, December 17, 2016

Two days from official conformation and then ????????

On December 19, 2016 the Electoral College members in each state will cast their votes for President of the United States.
It appears that there will be no massive reversal and even though 17 intelligence agencies, which by the way is about 14 more than I thought we had, have reported that Russian was involved in helping Donald Trump win the election.

I remember in 1972 when there were multiple rumors about the Watergate break-in but nothing factual came forth until well after the election.  Eventually Richard Nixon was forced to resign as a result of numerous incidents but the break-in at the DNC offices in the Watergate Hotel was Nixon's Waterloo moment.

Waterloo in Watergate should be a Bob Dylan song.

Hacking the DNC computer data base seems to be in the same ballpark.  

IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THERE WAS DIRECT INTERFERENCE BY THE OPPOSITION PARTY, BUT IF THE OPPOSITION PARTY ASKS A THIRD OUTSIDE PARTY TO DO SOMETHING ILLEGAL IT SHOULD ALL COME BACK ON THE SHOULDERS OF THE PERSON MAKING AN ILLEGAL REQUEST.

 On July 27th 2016 in Doral, Florida.......Donald Trump was quoted......


‘’Russia, if you are listening, I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.  I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

THAT COMMENT ALONE SHOULD RESULT IN DONALD J. TRUMP BEING INVESTIGATED FOR 
TREASON

He asked a foreign government to interfere in our election process.

SIMPLE AND CLEAR

WHAT'S NOT TO UNDERSTAND?

BUT THE MAIN THING THAT BOTHERS ME ABOUT MR. TRUMP IS HIS APPARENT CAVALIER ATTITUDE REGARDING 
NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

Donald J. Trump's quote from GOP debate in December of 2015

"The biggest problem this world has today is not President Obama with Global Warming, which is inconceivable, this is what he is saying. The biggest problem we have is nuclear....nuclear proliferation and having some maniac, having some madman go out and get a nuclear weapon. That in my opinion, that is the single biggest problem that our country faces right now."

We have elected one of those people and an entire nation's arsenal will now be under his watchful eye.

Enjoy the slide show.






























By the way....the barrels on the island is left over Agent Orange being storied on an atoll in the Pacific Ocean....and I just thought you might enjoy "stuff" we've created that we don't know what to do with....as in
ALL NUCLEAR WASTE EVER CREATED BY THE USE OF NUCLEAR
ANYTHING

Every one of the Nuclear explosions has a name and a number.

The biggest denotation belongs to Russia and it's called TZAR BOMBA.

THERE HAVE BEEN 2,475 NUCLEAR TESTS SINCE 1945 and apparently we have Lord Ernest Rutherford to thank for splitting the first atom in 1917...and basically discovering that atomic nucleus.  I always blamed it on Oppenheimer but he just used the science that Lord Rutherford discovered.

And in 33 days we will have a President of the United States who didn't know what the Nuclear Triad was one year ago and who also has been quoted as saying...."why make them if you are going to use them?"

SERIOUSLY

WTF?

Happy Holidays

Michael Timothy McAlevey













Saturday, December 10, 2016

I guess it can get even weirder.....

It's been 32 days since Biff won the election, and if you don't know about the election then all I can say is...........I am extremely jealous.

Everyday Biff does something else that just makes me wonder how much weirder it can get and I just stop and think....I guess it can get even weirder.

Now weird might be an odd word to use when referencing politics, unless you are referring to Anthony Weiner, but it really seems to fit well in the present environment.

Every appointment Biff makes appears to be an attempt to completely change REALITY.

Let's take the new EPA nomination.
Not only is he a climate change denier, he believes that coal should be restored to it's previous level of importance for America's energy needs along with fossil fuels. His overall view seems to be that the regulations, put in place to prevent corporations from polluting lakes, rivers, streams and the air we breathe, HINDER business and prevent job growth.

Allowing corporations to do whatever they want, anywhere they want APPEARS TO BE THE BACKBONE OF THE REPUBLICAN AGENDA....and BIFF is doing his part to make sure BUSINESS rules every part of our lives.

A large part of government's responsibility is to make sure that PEOPLE are protected from aggressive actions by other countries toward us and that our health and safety is not ignored because  of greed by corporations. It is also the job of civilian elected officials to control excessive dominance by the military complex.

Now the corporations have one of their own in the White House and someone who believes we have a weak military so the military budget will increase and  knowing it's already bigger than the next ten countries combined.........I guess it can get even weirder.  

I just don't want to, for so many obvious reasons, point out each of the "chosen ones" so click on this link.

Entire selections so far......this is a link to The Guardian website.  I apologize for their ads but the summaries seem to be coherent.  If you don't like the Guardian then you probably voted for Biff and most likely aren't reading this anyway.

I think back to early in the Presidential race and how people I know, and even love, said...."it's about time a businessman ran the country."  And now a "businessman" is going to run the country and everyone he appoints and hires will be running the country and the questions one has to ask is....."is running America right over the edge of a cliff, part of the bargain?

I read the other day that Biff refuses to take security briefings.  I'm pretty sure there won't be any news conferences anytime soon and on top of everything else I won't be surprised if he resigned a week after the inauguration just so Mike Pence could be President.

I also read, and not really sure if it fell under the Fake News category of Internet life as it now exists, that 34 of the Electoral College participants have decided to not support "Biff."

IF THAT IS TRUE THAN THERE MIGHT BE SOME LIGHT AT THE END OF THIS FUNNEL
And that's not a typo.....this ain't a tunnel my friend, it's a funnel and we are on the verge of sliding down into a unknown dimension of political absurdness and I guess it can get even weirder......

Study the appointments so far and tell me you don't agree!


Michael Timothy McAlevey














Thursday, December 1, 2016

Facts in spite of what you might think

It's so interesting to think back eight years when our economy was literally in the toilet.  I mean it was spiraling down like right after a flush.  "In the tank" was a term being used quite freely and of course the Republican fan base was letting everyone know that the new guy in charge was only going to make matters worse.  In fact I recall hearing statements like...."America is doomed" and "the guy has no experience."  And then from the very first day in the White House the GOP members of the house and the senate made it quite clear that they had no intention of working with the new President and one prominent member was quoted (within the first few weeks) as saying "our only goal is to make this guy a one term President."

The economic situation was being classified as the worst financial crisis since 1929....mainly fueled by the housing market which was collapsing due to various reasons that most people to this day still don't understand....and if they have some understanding it's due to a few movies made over the last six years.
The Big Short might be the one studio film that explained the problem and its domestic take was only $70 million so maybe about 6 to 7 million people saw the movie.  It now plays on various cable channels and on-demand so that means another 10 million people.  I'm guessing that the amount of people who really understand what happened to the economy in 2008, might be around 10 million....keeping in mind that a large percentage of people who get their information from watching a movie don't really retain the information.  Especially the technical aspects. By the way, Inside Job was a much better explanation of what happened but nobody saw that($4.5 million domestic box office) film.
My guess is that 30 to 40% of the paying public go to a movie to see the movie stars.  That might sound overly fatalistic but it is what it is.  And there's a reason that an actor or an actress keeps appearing year after year in different roles.  People like familiar faces even if the part makes no sense as in Jack Reacher films starring little Tommy Cruise. Does anyone really believe that only one person on the planet can play Jack Sparrow or Jason Bourne?  We've already learned from George Clooney that anyone can play Batman.

One exception.....Michael Keaton is the only person who could have played Beetlejuice. (maybe Robin Williams)

Jonah Hill and Jason Segal are proof that anyone can be an actor and becoming a movie star is some type of weird serendipitous experience that has no rhyme or reason.

I acknowledge that the art of opinion has taken over this article but that's because I introduced movies to the equation and since one of my favorite things to do is sit in front of a really really big screen, in a dark room with exit signs on either side of the room, which are there for my safety, and which I believe could be dimmed considerably without causing any harm or panic to the audience, I shan't apologize for the digression.

Back on point.....

THE MEMBERS OF THE GOP CONTROLLED CONGRESS REFUSED TO ALLOW BARACK OBAMA TO IMPLEMENT AN INFRASTRUCTURE AGENDA.  HE TRIED A FEW TIMES AND WAS BLOCKED.

THEY WILL NOT BLOCK DONALD TRUMP'S INFRASTRUCTURE AGENDA AND
MILLIONS OF JOBS WILL BE CREATED.

DID THE GOP ELECTED OFFICIALS MAKE THAT DECISION HOPING THAT A REPUBLICAN WOULD WIN THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2012?

DID THEY STICK TO THAT DECISION DURING HIS SECOND TERM HOPING THAT A REPUBLICAN WOULD WIN THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2016?

THAT'S EIGHT YEARS OF PREVENTING MILLIONS OF JOBS SO THAT BARACK OBAMA WOULD NOT LOOK LIKE A HERO.


Let's drift back once more......

The hostility generated toward Barack Obama from the very beginning was appalling and it continued for his entire time in office, even as most aspects of the economy slowly recovered.  The only real problem with the economy had to do with the lost of manufacturing  and service jobs, of which neither started under Obama but continued, and will continue, as long as wages in other countries, remain low.
Increasing profit is the only reason companies move jobs.  The move can be from state to state or country to country depending on the size of the endeavor seeking to increase their profits.

LET'S JUST WATCH HOW QUICKLY THE GOP CONTROLLED HOUSE AND SENATE TRIES TO APPROVE A HUGE INFRASTRUCTURE BILL SENT DOWN FROM THE WHITE HOUSE SHORTLY AFTER JANUARY 20 2017.

IT WON'T BE BLOCKED BY DEMOCRATS FOR TWO REASONS.

1)NOT ENOUGH VOTES TO BLOCK

and much more importantly....

2) INFRASTRUCTURE IS A DEMOCRATIC CONCEPT.

The Tea Party members within the GOP might be a problem for infrastructure approval because their entire viewpoint on most matters is less government spending....but I'm sure the Donald can sweet talk them into climbing on board.  A few free rounds of golf, hotel stays and an occasional ride on the Trump jet will probably work wonders...after all the Trump jet won't be used as much unless of course he decides not to use Air Force 1.  Will he attempt to paint his name in front of The United States of America on Air Force One?   Just the fact that I'd bring up that question should make you nervous because your first response probably was...."He can't do that, can he?"

I'm pretty sure he thinks he can do whatever he wants.

Citizens of this already great country have to prevent him from doing whatever he wants.

The simple fact is.......
 I won't soon forget how Barack Obama was treated by Republicans during a Presidency with no indictments at any level of his team and no personal scandals with anyone connected with his family or his friends.

I will use that memory to help make sure that Donald J. Trump is a one term President...and that is a fact.

From what I've been watching for the last 8 months.....I probably won't have to do much.

Michael Timothy McAlevey