Author: Blue Bronc

Born in Detroit when Truman was president, survived the rest of them. Early on I learned that FDR was the greatest president, which has withstood all attempts to change that image. Democratic Party, flaming liberal, Progressive, equality for all and a believer in we are all human and deserve respect and understanding. College educated, a couple of degrees, a lot of world experience and tons of fun. US Air Force (pre-MRE days). Oil and gas fields, computer rooms and stuff beyond anything I can talk about. It has been quite a life so far. The future is making my retirement boat my home. Dogs, cats and other critters fill my life with happiness. Work pays the bills.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge:

it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science. — Charles Darwin The Descent of Man

By Blue Bronc, a Trail Mix Contributor

During these days, as we start week eleven (or is it fifty), we must endure more going on in a day than took place in a year of the Obama administration.  Rumour, innuendo, facts, false facts and a septic tank full of Russian spies are just what we have to ingest by lunch.  After the White House press briefing all the real reporters need to spend four more hours trying to unwind the spin and present something reasonable a typical American might understand.

This is much faster than what we had to put up with under Nixon.  The vote-loser sitting in the White House, when he is not golfing, is out-lying the previous winner of lies.  Nixon lasted more than one term.  Odds makers are starting to shorten the time for the guy with a dead orange rat on his head.

What can we do?  Besides  #resist?  Other than read up on the Soviet/Russian KGB/SVR/FSB/GRU attacks on the world and America?  Instead of lying awake at night in fear of being deported?

Cutting the cable is more survival than saving a hundred dollars a month.  Putting timers on the television so the power is off during news hours will save replacing broken televisions.  Renewing your Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Sling and whatever else streaming video is very good, and will make them more profitable, plus you can watch almost anything you want, besides the news.

Books can help.  DVD’s really are good because you have no chance of watching or listening to the news.  Vinyl records present great (or bad) music, plus the challenge of storing and cataloging them.  Going for walks and playing with squirrels puts you in touch with nature.

Avoid stress eating.  And, especially do not get sucked into drinking games based on stupid rantings of a loon.

There is much to do that will help reduce anxiety and fear.  Increase your freedom and happiness.  It just takes a little will power.

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We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid

— Benjamin Franklin

By Blue Bronc, a Trail Mix Contributor

Twenty days and only eighty more to go.  The “first one hundred days” agenda is much like sitting in the mixing bowl with the motor set on HIGH.  What the guy has done in these first days is essentially unheard of in the history of this Union of States and it is making a mess of the kitchen.

Why?  Why would this happen this way.  Many explanations are available.  The most common is that the guy in charge is really not in charge.  In business settings he would be the one to get the deal done.  Think of going to a used car lot.  This guy is the one to get you to sign on the line to buy the third hand Yugo without wheels.  Put him in charge of running something like the greatest economy on Earth and you get horse apples stuck in the gears.

The man has mental issues so severe that he should be under the care of psychiatric professionals and sitting at some home where he can yell at people to stay off the grass.  Many have hazarded an opinion that he has issues easily diagnosed in the DSM V.  Good for them.  Bad for us because the guy is sitting in the White House and making a mess of it.

He thinks he is queen of the hill and that the world must bow to his whims.  What he is finding out is that his dictates can and will be ignored or challenged.  And, he will not win everything, no matter how much he whines like a two year old denied a toy.

The guy lives in a world that only exists in his head and he is running a real world based on that.  His handlers exist in similar alternative worlds and speak his language well.  The rest of us are not invited in and without a Rosetta Stone to use for translations we cannot break through the barriers.

What happens next is a common question, best asked by the minute as the guy goes about destroying the United States as fast as he can.  It seems like he does know that at some point an adult will step in and put the little monster in a playpen with a binkie in his foul mouth.   How much damage will be repairable is another question adults need to ask themselves too.

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O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!

Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilst bloody treason flourish’d over us

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Act II Scene III
William Shakespeare

By Blue Bronc, a Trail Mix Contributor

Although the beginning works to attack and destroy drumpf have been designed, it will not be by those who wish him ill that he falls.  He will by his own actions and words be taken down.  A man so mentally frail as to lash out in the manner of a petulant three year old will always be looked down on in an adult world.

I am afraid that our country will be rent apart prior to his removal from office.  When republicans (they do not deserve the respect of a capitol letter) scrap their own love of country and respect for the law to stand behind and uplift the man we can be afraid of them too.  They will follow him to the edge of a deep crevasse from which they either see the truth, or they blind themselves in idolatry and plunge America to it’s death.

Can the Democrats rally enough support to end this folly of idiocy any time before it reaches a terrible destructive climax?  I keep my faith in a handful of Republicans willing to risk ire of the child to save America from his tantrums.  These men and women are true to their beliefs and to a strong country of these United States.  Their actions are imperative to stopping a blunder, to stopping a wrong, to stopping a child who needs to be bundled in a blanket and a pacifier shoved in his mouth.

Will the Republicans and Democrats succeed?  They must, otherwise serious harm will be done to a once great country.

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‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’

… was the work of a wayward imagination brought to the end of its tether by political disgust and personal confusion. — John Le Clare

By Blue Bronc, a Trail Mix Contributor

Notes about the Russkies packing up and going home.

First, and most important, it is not the hacking the DNC that is the issue.  It is what they are doing that is not reported.  The DNC is old news.  Yahoo is old news.  OPM is old news.  VA is old news.  You do not know what they have been attacking.  Those attacks are why the GRU/FSB/SVR are booking flights home this weekend.  Getting them out of the D.C. region is the key.

Second, many of those kicked out were getting to be a pain in the ass.  Not much more is needed to explain their departure.

Third, which could be first, is to box the floater in.  If the orange lunatic wants to turn around and invite the GRU/FSB/SVR back in to reestablish spy operations he would be very close to treason.  This is as much for his “enjoyment” as poking Putin in the eye (sort of like closing down one of his eyes on the U.S.)

I do not know what is going on other than what is reported in the news.  But, I can guess there is something more behind this.  Most likely is a lot more going on to reach this point.  The DNC thing is a nice cover. (Don’t worry, the Russians already know that.)

Of interest to me is that Putin did not kick out any U.S. operatives at this time.  It is not out of the goodness of his large intestine.  He is KGB and does not have a heart (just wondering what another heartless soul, Cheney, thinks of his party leader kissing up to the Soviet KGB).  Why would he not follow tradition?  I can only guess that he expects this example of “good” will make his saddle buddy allow the GRU/FSB/SVR to come back in and start local spying again.

This action also wipes the slate a little bit clean so that the GRU/FSB/SVR will have to reestablish their networks.  That will take time.  Perhaps longer than four years and the floater will be out of office by time Putin gets operatives back in and doing the nasty.

The best of this is that the Soviets/Russians get kicked in the groin.  A few U.S. assets have been given to the GRU/FSB/SVR, but the loss may not be in the same scale as what was accomplished.

Next note:  GRU is military intelligence, a mix of NSA, CIA and local folk; FSB is local (Russian) intelligence but with some external contacts and SVR is spy service, sort of like CIA.  Be happy you do not have to deal with these people.

Next note:  Putin, and the FSB/SVR would rather have known operatives stay in Russia than to kick out those they know are there.  This is a multi-layer poker game.  Do you keep what you know?  Or do you remove what you know to wait for a new deal of cards?  Take a card on 16 or take a card on 17.

And, I am sure you are starting to build a question as to why I know this.  I am just like you, except I was exposed to this stuff a long time ago.

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It’s Discouraging To Think How Many People Are Shocked By Honesty

And how few by deceit. — Noel Coward

By Blue Bronc, a Trail Mix Contributor

Something occurred last year about this time that set me curious and with a questioning of what is going on in this world.  It was repeated this last Friday in another business exchange.  I do not know if it is my generation and those earlier which caused the disruption to my value system.  Or if it was my early religious experiences, which also affected me.

I drive a truck with a diesel engine.  If you have one you understand the need to replace two batteries, not just one.  As winter was approaching, or perhaps was knocking, it was time to replace batteries which barely made it through summer.  I drove over to one of the big box discount stores and purchased two new batteries.  Asked for the used batteries I said those were still in the truck and I would bring them back the next day.  That was fine and I was not charged a battery fee.

pinocchioAs promised I showed up the next day with the two used batteries.  As they were being transferred to a storage rack a comment came to me: “Thank you for your honesty.” 

At first I thought nothing of it.  I was happy not to have two nasty old batteries around.  And more important I gave my word to bring them back.

But over the hours of the afternoon and since I thought of that comment and wondered why the clerk felt he needed to say that.  Was theft that rampant?  Were the customers of this store, and perhaps all stores, dishonest?  It has been bothersome.  A nit in the drawers.

A singular statement until Friday.

I placed an order with a gigantic online retailer last Saturday for a new mouse and a murder mystery novel.  The mouse was to be delivered on Monday.  Excellent.  Monday, no delivery.  Okay, a mistake was made but of minor consequences.  Tuesday, delivery schedule was to bring a mouse and book to my door by eight p.m.  Tuesday, no delivery.  Wednesday, the delivery schedule was to be by eight p.m.  No delivery after eight p.m.  So I called the retailer and they could not get anyone at the delivery office to answer the phone.  I cancelled the order.

Thursday morning there was a box in my door.  It arrived, but was no longer mine.  I did not have time to deal with it that day but I did on Friday.  I called and it took a while for the customer service to understand that the articles were delivered and I would pay for them rather than send them back.  In fact about thirty minutes of customer service trying to figure out how to accomplish such a feat as reopen the order and pay for it again.

Several times during this ordeal I was told by the CS person “Thank you for your honesty”.  What?  I had no idea that agreeing to buy what had been bought, cancelled and now paid for again required honesty.  I do not understand.  I find it hard to comprehend that honesty was what I did.

Put these two experiences together, along with the current discourse of our country from the election and I am still unable to come to any valid conclusion. 

“Thank you for your honesty”.  A phrase that is so unusual outside of someone returning a wallet without taking the contents, that it catches with me.  “Thank you for returning these batteries” is what I expected first.  The second time I expected “thank you for your order (even if it is the second time)”. 

And now we have someone who might be the most dishonest person ever elected to be president leading by example.  I do fear for these United States.

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