on making the choice that is really no choice at all...
enough of this seemingly never ending annoying “you, no you, no you, no you….and if we can’t be honest with each other about anything else, LETS BE HONEST WITH OTHER ABOUT THIS:
Donald Trump is a liar. Hillary Clinton is a liar. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are liars…WE GOOD?
Okay…wasting time and losing friends arguing over who lies the most or whose lies are the worst or who of the liars is the lying-est liars ACCOMPLISHES NOTHING. Except wasting time and losing friends.
Now, if you buy my premise, and due respect, and Mr Dennit…I don’t CARE if you buy it or not, because I’m through arguing with you or anyone else about this…here’s what I’m using as a determination as to whether I should vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.
and AGAIN, DO NOT FORGET, I AM NOT CONSIDERING and I AM NOT INTERESTED in who lies the most or the worst or who is the lyingest liar. IN fact, I’ll go you one better: I stipulate and concede that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the LAST TWO PEOPLE ON THE PLANET who would ever get MY vote for President of the United States, even if there were only two people LEFT on the planet….besides me.
So, again, given that I have been given no other practical choice in the matter, other than not voting at all or voting for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein who, I honestly believe, I match or exceed in terms of qualifications for the job, here’s what I am forced to use as a way of determining for whom I will cast my vote.
Qualifications for the perio. Period. Personality, off the table. Character, whatever the hell that means in the America of 2016, off the table. Gender, off the table. Religion, sexual preference, number of ex wives and/or ex-husbands, off the table. Any rumor, gossip, innuendo, diss, shade, shadow or hint of bad behavior in their past, present or possible future, OFF THE TABLE.
PUT ANOTHER “EASY TO FOLLOW” WAY: we have to go at this as if THE CHOICE, the ONLY choice I have and the ONLY choice YOU have is between the guy who flew the Plane into the NORTH TOWER and the guy who flew the plane into the SOUTH TOWER…..and as appalled, disgusted, angry, resentful, bitter, certifiably and justifiably pissed off as you are at the choice, YOU HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE….AND YOU MUST CHOOSE…..so because YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE….you HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO GO WITH QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE POSITION…BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT IT COMES DOWN TO…….BECAUSE IT HAS TO….. …cold, hard, dispassionate assessment of the list of skills on the resume. As if ALL you were EVER ALLOWED TO KNOW ABOUT THESE TWO PEOPLE WAS THE LIST OF ACCOMPLISHMENT ON THEIR RESUMES……”
might as well face it....we're addicted to.....
Hillary remarked, in a speech this past week, that half of those who support Trump are "deplorables".....
And, in that new spirit of us not lying to each other, fess up: you and I both know that there are a lot of deplorable people in this nation.
But Hilary's comment, in the context it was spoken, unnecessary generalization and the kind of cheap shot, low class crap that got 13 million people all hot and bothered during the Republican primary season……Donald probably has a copyright on that kind of gutter talk, so Hillary, at the very least, is risking being sued for copyright infringement…because, trust me, and you know I’m right, Donald WILL sue if there is even a whiff of a case there….
THAT SAID…the incorrect and unkind accusation levied against people who continue, at this point in the process, to solidly and unwaveringly support Donald Trump is that they are either blind, deaf, dumb or stupid….and that’s neither nice, fair or true.
What it is is…..INTOXICATION…..AND I HAVE EVERY CONFIDENCE THAT MY OWN EXPERIENCE< EDUCATION and CIRCUMSTANCES QUALIFY ME AS AN EXPERT ON THE SUBJECT OF INTOXICATION…and ADDICTION TO THAT INTOXICATION….
Not going to go through the resume qualifications for either candidate…..you can find FACTUAL< UNBIASED lists, resumes’ as it were, of both candidates on line. NOT THEIR WEBSITES…..
you can find FACT on ME……that have NOTHING to do with my personality or whether you love me or hate me or think I’m God’s gift or the anti Christ……Find the qualifications and read them….and then read them again….
even the most ill-informed, uninformed, even possibly uneducated person in the nation can see and hear the way that Trump conducts himself….
the most commonly heard sentence in the English language for the past eight months to a year: “Donald Trump is either a douche or a psychopath or both, but I can’t bring myself to vote for Hillary Clinton”
said before…say again….those who are convinced that this man is the answer to the problem, that he is the change this country so clearly needs and wants, that he is the key to the lock, the cream in the coffee, the bada to our bing……are NOT attracted, and not addicted, to the man…what reasonable, kind, compassionate, spiritual, caring American would be?….they are attracted and addicted to what the man represents….what he promises….what they think he will deliver….MOST, IF NOT ALL, OF WHICH, any scholar or teacher or expert from ANY political party can prove to you, WILL NOT BE ACCOMPLISHED because he simply CANNOT MAKE IT HAPPEN….no matter what he says he will deliver…his lack of experience in America’s governmental system is the primary reason he won’t be able to deliver….
.AND more dangerously to the nation and more useless as a solution is the idea that CHANGE that comes in the form of giving control to someone who is not qualified to have control is a positive, beneficial, worthwhile thing…PEOPLE screamed eight years ago that Barack Obama wasn’t qualified because all he had ever been was a community organizer…WELL??? show of hands …how many of you who LOVE Trump HATE Obama?.....HELLLOOO…...is like believing that the way to solve the problem of rats in the barn is to burn down the barn. AND AT THIS POINT< I NEED TO THROW IN A REMINDER OF THE ORIGINAL PREMISE HERE……the ONLY criteria for choosing in this election is QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE JOB……NOT character, not personality, not gender or religion or, frankly, whether or not YOU ACTUALLY LIKE the person….or even if you HATE the person….because, HERE’S THE REAL KICKER THAN NOBODY ELSE IN MEDIA OR ANYONE ELSE YOU HEAR OR READ OR SEE WILL TELL YOU…..
YOU DON’T HAVE THE LUXURY OF VOTING FOR SOMEONE YOU LIKE or ADMIRE or GET ALL PUMPED UP ABOUT THIS TIME AROUND….and YOU DON’T HAVE THE LUXURY OF not VOTING FOR SOMEONE YOU DON’T LIKE…..
Because Hillary is flawed beyond question
And Donald is flawed beyond question
This isn’t an election about the “lesser of two evils”
THE ONLY CHOICE WE HAVE AVAILABLE IS: between two people of EQUALLY BAD< FLAWED< FAILED CHARACTER AS HUMAN BEINGS……two of the most unlikable people who have EVER run for President in the history of this country….
YOU DON’T HAVE THE LUXURY OF considering character or personality….
the ONLY criteria for choosing in this election has to be QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE JOB …..As if ALL YOU WERE EVER ALLOWED TO KNOW ABOUT THE TWO PEOPLE APPLYING FOR THE JOB WAS THE LIST OF QUALFICATION ON THEIR RESUMES……”
and that brings me to the original observation about wasting time arguing about this….I am an alcoholic and I understand addiction, better than many, if not most of all of you….and you can believe me or not, I’m good either way…..I am telling you that those who take the time to read the side by side list of QUALIFICATIONS for the job AND continue to support and endorse Trump are intoxicated with the idea of change that is never going to happen, promises that are never going to be kept and the addiction to that intoxication makes any further debate pointless……because: and I also KNOW this as fact from my own life, when it comes to overcoming addiction to intoxication…one must admit they are addicted and accept the reality of that before any change of heart or mind is possible… until, or unless, that admission is forthcoming, ANY attempt at intervention by anyone else is an exercise in futility....or as my friends who like me to use fewer words sometimes:….A WASTE OF TIME…so, what’s the question I’m asking here on the old talk radio show? There is No question. I’m not asking you whether you agree with me or not. Feel free, of course, to agree OR disagree, that’s your right and privilege and prerogative. But I’m not asking for opinions on this subject tonight. Because, AND ONCE AGAIN, let’s do each other the courtesy and honor of being honest with each other, we are NOT going to change each other’s minds about the virtues, or lack of, or value, or lack of, or character, or lack of, in the two and only two choices for President that have been forced upon us.
So, let’s not spend any more time ARGUING with each other when we both know what that argument will accomplish. NOTHING….except maybe damage to our friendship….and a lot of WASTED TIME
on that whole "two ears, one mouth" thing
(on air, I played two pieces regarding Colin Kaepernick's national anthem incident....one was from Tomi Lahren of the Blaze cable channel and the other was from former wrestler/former Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura)
one issue, two voices, two different points of view…and isn’t that ALSO the point of “freedom” and “liberty”.?....
and if you’re wondering where I come down, or stand or kneel, as the case may be, on the whole respecting the flag and the anthem thing, well, MY position on it is not why I’m bringing it up again…because haven’t we all had ENOUGH of blather and yammer and talk radio blah blah blah about THAT particular burr in our collective saddle?
MY purpose in bringing it up is as a framework around what those two well known political voices had to say and what I’m HEARING when I bother to listen as much to HOW they’re talking as WHAT they’re talking about…..
agree or disagree with their respective POV, I didn’t hear anything coming out of Jesse Ventura’s mouth except personal opinion and a little personal praise of Kapernick
what I heard from Tomi Lahren, who is the new blonde Barbie darling of the radical right wing in these UNITED States was a perfectly valid and legitimate opinion and a few points that were fair and reasonable and all of it coated with snark, sarcasm, condescension, smugness and superiority…..the only thing missing was closed captioning that read : close captioned for all your libtards who are ruining this country for all of us blonde Barbie darlings of the radical right wing in these UNITED states……
but before you break a nail or damage a cuticle dialing the smartphone or punching the keyboard to post your hot blooded reaction to my slamming Tomi-kins, take a few seconds and a breath and catch THIS curve ball.
what I just said to you about what Tomi Lahren and Jesse Ventura said just now was factual and correct….because you yourself just heard what those two had to say.
what was incorrect and inappropriate was the way I said what said to you….because my comments about Tomi Lahren were snarky, sarcastic, condescending, smug and superior…and didn’t do a THING to further reasonable discussion or bring ANY of us any closer to helping solve our nation’s problems or defuse the anger and hostility that election year 2016 seems to be drowning us in……
and the larger point is this: it’s not only important, I think it’s critical that we all find a way quickly to dial it down, listen a little more, think a little more, consider all points of view a little more, even and ESPECIALLY those that we don’t automatically agree with…as if, say, those opinions were being expressed by a beloved granddad in our family…..
it’s not easy to do that…because these are hot button times filled with hot button issues and often the passion switch short circuits the common courtesy switch….very often, these days, in fact….but IF I COULD flip a switch, it would be the switch that dials things down and gets us all to listen a little more and consider all points of view a little more….with courtesy and respect……
like I said, it’s not easy…and amidst all my many admitted failings, one that I work hard on all the time is not being a hypocrite….
so, here’s the bottom line….I’m gonna work more on dialing it down and listening a little more and considering other points of view a little more…and there will be times when I will be snarky, sarcastic, condescending, smug and superior, my grade school teachers used to graciously call that precocious…but that’s NOT what I should be….and that’s not how I should bring perspective and POV to all of you here every week…..
and the difference between public talking heads like, say Rush and Hannity and Coulter and Tomi Lahren and public talking heads like me?….. well, I just told you that I need to try harder to cut down on the snark and smug and superior…and, although I freely admit I could be wrong…… I’m pretty sure you’re NEVER gonna hear those words coming out of the public talking heads of Rush and Hannity and Coulter and Tomi Lahren…
this show's "one more shot" regarding a basic life lesson learned at a very high cost
those folks who read my published work or listen to my various and sundry talk and/or music radio shows are familiar with a satirical, but dead center true, slogan I made up a couple of years ago and one I use frequently: the problem with freedom is that you have to give it to everybody….there is, though, a second little catch phrase that I conjured up some time ago, as well, one that doesn’t get quite the use or airplay, but is, in my humble O, just as right on the money: common sense is no longer common, nor sensical…..
Tiziana Cantone was a 31 year old Italian woman who hanged herself this week in her aunt’s home near Naples. She killed herself because she could no longer deal with the resulting stress, pressure, ridicule, embarrassment and/or humiliation that resulted from sexually explicit videos of the young lady being posted online and, right out of the DUHHH folder, going viral.
Four people are under criminal investigation over the posting of the video, authorities calling it “defamation” of the woman. Cantone’s mother, touching her child’s coffin at the funeral which was broadcast live on Italian television, was heard to say that her daughter was “a very good girl”.
Tiziana Cantone, after either having herself or allowing herself to be videoed naked and having sex sent the video to “friends” who turned around and published it online without her knowledge or permission. More than a million people watched it.
In the video itself, she is clearly heard to say to her lover, “you’re filming? Bravo.”
After the posting and the resulting abuse she experienced, Cantone went to court, there was a long battle to have the video removed from websites and search engines and social media, a case that she won although the young woman was ordered to pay over twenty grand in court costs, a little tweak that local media called “ a final insult.”
All of my life I have believed that I tended to think about things more deeply and/or more complexly than the average joe or jane. And by that I don’t mean, at all, that I’m smarter or wiser or better than anyone, it’s just that I always tended to see many, many layers to just about anything and everything that I turned my brain loose on. And far from feeling superior to anyone, necessarily, trust me when I tell you that I actually envied people who didn’t find themselves being bothered with having to deal with multiple angles of multiple sides of multiple possibilities of every issue that floated into the think tank. I also subscribed to the youthful notion that as I got older, all of that thinking and pondering and analyzing would result in ME being the wise, tribal elder guy who the less experienced would seek out for answers and guidance.
Turns out that all getting to this tribal elder age has resulted in is the knowledge that angles and sides and layers and possibilities aside, there are some very simple, basic, rock bottom truths in this life that are now, have always been and will always be rock bottom truths.
One of them is don’t ever do anything that you wouldn’t or couldn’t live with if people found out about it.
Does this mean that I’m blaming or shaming or dissing or “throwing shade”, as the young people call it, at Tiziana Cantone? Of course not. Believe it or not, kids, there was a time in my life that had there BEEN an internet where things could go viral, I would have come horrifyingly close, more than once, to finding myself the talk of the town…the nation…the world….or, at the very least, my high school classmates….or college classmates….or next door neighbors in later years….the house that I have lived in all of my life has almost always been made out of glass….
The larger point in all of this is that all of the energy being spent on, outrage, cries for justice and demands for prevention of reoccurrence of the kind of embarrassment and humiliation that was inflicted upon this young woman feels somehow, to this tribal elder, like misspent energy.
Energy that might be better, and more effectively spent, with cries and demands for a return to those thrilling days of yesteryear in which common sense WAS a little more common and DID make a little more sense. When that big ass package marked FREEDOM that, as kids, we delight at tearing open with excitement and abandon came with a seal on it that couldn’t be opened until you at least read the instruction manual…the instruction manual that warned you of what could happen to you if you didn’t handle the freedom carefully and with…wait, here comes another one of those old man things: with the sense that God gave a goose.
I preach a lot about freedom without…freedom without accountability, freedom without responsibility, freedom without thought of consequences…..
I don’t preach about it because I have nothing better to do with my time than preach about it…I preach about it because I’m a tribal elder now and I know in my heart, the very same heart that would be shattered if a 31 year old daughter of mine hung herself because she made the mistake of trusting her friends, I preach about it because it’s very, very, very important that 31 year olds…and 21 year olds and even ten year olds, these days, learn something from their tribal elders who have walked various paths of potential shame themselves……
it’s an old saying….rebooted right here, right now, in a style that young people of today can appreciate:
Doctor, it makes me want to kill myself when I let a video of me naked and screwing be seen by ANYBODY except my lover and myself……
well….the doctor replies……
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