Stonepounder
Stonepounder's Journal"Pity the Nation..." Lawrence Ferlinghetti
“Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.”
― Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Video of Ferlinghetti reading 'Pity the Nation' at:
https://bit.ly/2lEpHHu
DONALD TRUMP MAY NOT BE ON THE 2020 ELECTION BALLOT IN SOME STATES
https://bit.ly/2Kr83lxDONALD TRUMP MAY NOT BE ON THE 2020 ELECTION BALLOT IN SOME STATES UNLESS HE RELEASES HIS TAX RETURNS
Donald Trump made headlines throughout the 2016 campaign for his refusal to release his tax returns to the public. Now, if he doesn't comply to disclose that information in the lead-up to the 2020 election, he could find his name stripped from the ballot in some states.
The Rhode Island Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would require all presidential candidates to make their tax returns from the past five years available for voters to see, or risk being left out at the polls. Lawmakers approved of the bill overwhelmingly, 34 to 3. The legislation will now move on to the statehouse for a vote.
The Democrats who run Rhode Island's state Senate told The Providence Journal that “tax returns provide essential information about candidates’ conflicts of interest, and other vital information to a voter weighing a decision."
Rhode Island is not the only state passing this kind of legislation. In early May, Maryland lawmakers passed a similar bill that would force presidential candidates to publicize their tax returns in order to appear on the state ballot.
A little more at link (Newsweek). I'm waiting for more states - like California and New York to pass laws like this.
MR FORTY-FIVE Parody of Mrs Robinson (Parody Project)
I heard a rumor...
that Satan has had to draft several million damned souls to start creating a 10th circle of Hell to hold Trump and all of his Administration officials.
OK, I'm even more pissed tonight!
Was listening to Brian Williams doing a good part of his hour tonight talking about Trump and his having to cave on his loving, caring policy of separating children from their parents.
They kept calling the places where the children "Shelters". I could feel my blood pressure rising to dangerous levels. They are NOT BLOODY GOD DAMNED SHELTERS you bloody PC idiots! They are "Detention Facilities"!!!!!! Don't be damn PC about it! Call them what they are. They are the first step on the road to concentration camps.
First they came for the Immigrants, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Immigrant.
Then they came for the Unions, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a member of a Union.
Then they came for the Muslims, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Muslim.
Then they came for me (the Liberals)—and there was no one left to speak for me.
This Land is Your Land (Parody Project) (This one will make you cry)
&t=108sFinally, a president with the guts to stand up to Canada (Humor/Satire)
https://wapo.st/2y8Iq7eFinally, a president with the guts to stand up to Canada
O Canada: You had it coming, eh.
They inflicted Nickelback on us. We did nothing.
They sent us Justin Bieber. We turned the other cheek.
They were responsible for one abomination after the other: Poutine. Diphthong vowels. Hawaiian pizza. Instant mashed potatoes. Ted Cruz.
Still, we did not retaliate — until now.
Finally, the United States has a president with the brains and the guts to stand up to the menace of the north. This weekend President Trump called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “meek,” “very dishonest & weak” for protesting U.S. tariffs. Trump’s trade adviser said “there’s a special place in hell” for Trudeau, and Trump’s economic adviser said Trudeau “stabbed us in the back” and is guilty of “betrayal” and “double-crossing.”
Trudeau earned his place in the underworld for some truly appalling rhetoric, saying “we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.” Offensive! He also found it “kind of insulting” that the Trump administration said it was imposing tariffs on Canadian goods “for a national security reason” given that Canadians “stood shoulder to shoulder with American soldiers in far off lands in conflicts from the First World War onward.”
Canada is not a national security threat to the United States? Au contraire, as they say in (very foreign) Quebec.
Trudeau conveniently omits the invasion of Detroit from Canada in 1812. And there was that ugly dispute in 1844 when soon-to-be President James K. Polk wanted the U.S. border to extend all the way north to Alaska at 54 degrees, 40 minutes latitude (slogan: “Fifty-four forty or fight!”) but was forced to accept the 49th parallel, a humiliation that denied us Vancouver and many great Chinese restaurants.
More at link.
Kim Jong Un Offers to Host Peace Talks Between United States and Canada (Borowitz)
https://bit.ly/2sTGTfwKim Jong Un Offers to Host Peace Talks Between United States and Canada
SINGAPORE (The Borowitz Report)—One day before his summit with Donald J. Trump, the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, has offered to host peace talks between the United States and Canada. Speaking to reporters at his hotel in Singapore, Kim said that the rising tensions between the North American neighbors were posing an “intolerable threat to world peace.”
In addition to offering to host U.S.-Canada talks in Pyongyang, Kim urged the immediate creation of a demilitarized zone along the border separating the two hostile nations. “In exchange for Canadian Mounties agreeing to stand down on their side of the border, the United States, in turn, would dismantle its nuclear weapons,” Kim said.
Although stating that “North Korea stands ready and willing to be an honest broker” in peace talks between the two countries, he urged Trump to dial back the “inflammatory rhetoric” that he aimed at Canadians over the weekend.
“Violent language and threats have no place in international diplomacy,” Kim said.
Congress could just about copy the Nixon Articles of Impeachment and use them for Trump!
Article 1
RESOLVED, That Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanours, and that the following articles of impeachment to be exhibited to the Senate:
ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT EXHIBITED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN THE NAME OF ITSELF AND OF ALL OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AGAINST RICHARD M. NIXON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT OF ITS IMPEACHMENT AGAINST HIM FOR HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANOURS.
ARTICLE 1
In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his consitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice, in that:
On June 17, 1972, and prior thereto, agents of the Committee for the Re-election of the President committed unlawful entry of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, District of Columbia, for the purpose of securing political intelligence. Subsequent thereto, Richard M. Nixon, using the powers of his high office, engaged personally and through his close subordinates and agents, in a course of conduct or plan designed to delay, impede, and obstruct the investigation of such illegal entry; to cover up, conceal and protect those responsible; and to conceal the existence and scope of other unlawful covert activities.
The means used to implement this course of conduct or plan included one or more of the following:
1. Making false or misleading statements to lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States;
2. Withholding relevant and material evidence or information from lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States;
3. Approving, condoning, acquiescing in, and counselling witnesses with respect to the giving of false or misleading statements to lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States and false or misleading testimony in duly instituted judicial and congressional proceedings;
4. Interfering or endeavouring to interfere with the conduct of investigations by the Department of Justice of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the office of Watergate Special Prosecution Force, and Congressional Committees;
5. Approving, condoning, and acquiescing in, the surreptitious payment of substantial sums of money for the purpose of obtaining the silence or influencing the testimony of witnesses, potential witnesses or individuals who participated in such unlawful entry and other illegal activities;
6. Endeavouring to misuse the Central Intelligence Agency, an agency of the United States;
disseminating information received from officers of the Department of Justice of the United States to subjects of investigations conducted by lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States, for the purpose of aiding and assisting such subjects in their attempts to avoid criminal liability;
7. Making or causing to be made false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States into believing that a thorough and complete investigation had been conducted with respect to allegations of misconduct on the part of personnel of the executive branch of the United States and personnel of the Committee for the Re-election of the President, and that there was no involvement of such personnel in such misconduct:
8. or endeavouring to cause prospective defendants, and individuals duly tried and convicted, to expect favoured treatment and consideration in return for their silence or false testimony, or rewarding individuals for their silence or false testimony.
In all of this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.
Adopted 27-11 by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, at 7.07pm on Saturday, 27th July, 1974, in Room 2141 of the Rayburn Office Building, Washington D.C.
Schools Cancel White House Tours, Fearing That Trump Might Teach Kids History (Borowitz)
https://bit.ly/2sFFjP3Schools Cancel White House Tours, Fearing That Trump Might Teach Kids History
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Schools across the country have cancelled tours of the White House out of concern that a chance encounter with Donald J. Trump could lead to an attempt by the President to teach their students history.
In an advisory sent to the nation’s schools on Thursday, the American Educators Consortium urged teachers to scrap all scheduled trips to the White House in order “to prevent the hard work you and your students have been doing from being totally undone.”
Carol Foyler, a middle-school history teacher from Bethesda, Maryland, spoke of a “scary moment” during a White House tour last week when her class had a “near-miss” with Trump. “We were walking by the Oval Office, the door was open, and I could see he was in there,” the educator said. “I just said to my kids, ‘Keep your heads down and walk fast.’ ”
Foyler said that she considers herself lucky to have protected her students from the devastating impact of Trump’s ignorance, and acknowledges that the situation could have been “much worse.” “What if we had been walking through the West Wing and found ourselves face to face with Trump and Betsy DeVos?” she said. “I don’t even want to think about it.”
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