I lost my lunch today

I was having lunch in a restaurant today, minding my own business. There were four older folks in a booth behind me talking rather loudly.

The woman behind me was chattering on and on about how horrible undocumented people are and then one of the guys with her started yapping that he doesn't even think legal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the US. By that point (Being an immigrant myself) I had enough...just as I finished lunch one of the women started to go on and on about the protests and how horrible they are. Then the guy with her proclaimed that they (the protesters) are paid and making 50.00 an hour. Wow! I'm all for that, that's more than I make.

I asked them where I sign up to protest and how they know about this. Their response was that it was Fox News who told them. I asked where Fox had found that out. Their response was that it must be true if Fox told them. The implication was that Fox wouldn't lie.

By that point I had to get out of there. I swear to God I am leaning more and more for a civics test in order for people to vote. The stupid is so profound. I fear for the US.

Not quite a political post

Today would have been my dad's 90th birthday. He died right before Christmas 1964 at 38 years of age when I was 6.

My dad was born in NYC in a neighborhood in which he had to walk about 20 blocks to school. In those 20 blocks he heard and learned 3 different languages. By the time he was 25 years old he was fluent in five languages.

At 17 years old he signed up along with millions of others to enlist in the US Army and was sent to Europe to fight for liberation of our allied populations. After the war he posed as a clerk in a East German hotel and passed along information to the US Government about what was going on there.
When the Korean War started he was sent there and then back to Germany after the Korean War at which time he met my mother.

When things were just being heated up in the Eisenhower administration, on December 28 1960 he was sent to a little known place called Vietnam because of his skill both in Languages and in deciphering code. On January 17, 1961 he was shot by a sniper and came stateside to live with his family (my mom and I) one night right before Christmas of 1964, after having suffered a stroke previously, he had a massive heart attack and killed him.

What my mom had told me of him (I barely remember him) he had insisted that Franklin Roosevelt was the greatest president we have ever had due to his creating jobs and other liberal policies. He said FDR would have been a near perfect president had it not been for imprisoning the Japanese.

My dad was great defender of civil rights (even getting arrested for letting a woman of color sit in the front seat of a car with him) he despised those that were quick to saber rattle or plunge into war.

What is going on now to me, totally desecrates what he fought for, what he believed in and devalues what my father and millions of others have been led to believe to be the sacred principles of our democratic society.

As a birthday present to my father, I thank others who have stood up to the tyranny and bullying of the past and of the present. I pray that we soon restore some common sense and even more so some common empathy into our civic affairs and become the nation that my father fought for!

Sorry this is so long!!!

This is catholic schools week

we need to fight against private education. I was a product of 8 years of private catholic school education. For all of those 8 years, all the school did was tell us how much better we were than our public school counterparts! We were also taught that our faith was the only right one and that others were precluded from eternal life! The teachers looked with disdain on public school students. On Saturdays kids from the public schools came in to receive religious instruction. Usually at some point during the week when a private school kid was missing something or something was broken, the teachers would lay the blame on the public school students who came in on Saturday's

My wife wound up working for private schools for 14 years. First of all they pay nothing like the public schools. Secondly they treat their employees like shit. One principal told my wife and fellow staff members that "teachers are a dime a dozen" One principal told my wife that she "had no right to be pregnant because it will cost the school extra money for substitutes" There are no employment protections in the private system and this is what this administration wants to go back to. We made it a point to NEVER send our children to a private school. In the 26 years of being in the public system, they each received a world class education.

Private schools are a breeding ground for racists, climate deniers, christo-fascists and those wishing to feed at the corporate trough of privatized education. FUCK ALL PRIVATE SCHOOLS!!!

How long do you think trump will last in office?

Trump's successes so far:

So the orange self absorbed man boy has been President for what two weeks now? So far his successes include:

A dismally attended inauguration, lying about it and then having protests against him his very first day in office that massively exceeded the crowds that came to adore him.

Sparking massive instant protests to a wrong headed immigration policy'

Being 0-5 in the courts regarding his Presidential actions

Pissing off China, Mexico, Australia and god knows how many other nations

Making the operations of the White House a total cluster fuck job

Comes in with the worst approval rating of any president since polling began

Has a majority disapproval rating in 8 days beating the old record by 726 days

Decimating the career folks at the State Department

Most of all and worst of all; making the world a more dangerous place and trashing the constitution

and it's only been two weeks, I have four words to say:

GOD HELP US ALL!!! Feel free to add to this list!